Spots 
Cruel historical practices of later centuries reflect the real spirit of earlier unwritten eras. Society invents noble ideals like divine right, yet monarchical reality often presents incompetent leaders selected by birth rather than talent. Satire exposes how romanticized pasts obscure systemic injustice and institutionalized cruelty.
PREFACE
Hank Morgan, a pragmatic Connecticut factory superintendent knocked unconscious during a workplace brawl, awakens beneath an oak tree in sixth-century Britain. Confronted by an armored knight who challenges him to combat, Hank climbs a tree to avoid the charge. Upon reaching Camelot, he observes a peaceful landscape populated by unkempt peasants who regard his modern attire with bewildered fear.
THE STRANGER’S HISTORY → CHAPTER I. CAMELOT
Hank meets Clarence, a page dressed in vibrant silk, who insists the year is 513. Taken to King Arthur's court, Hank observes noble knights bragging endlessly about absurd duels fought without initial provocation. The nobility possesses childlike gullibility alongside noble physical dignity. Brains hold little value in a social order maintained entirely by hereditary status and martial tradition.
CHAPTER II. KING ARTHUR’S COURT → CHAPTER III.
Sir Dinadan entertains the court with crude practical jokes and ancient gags, demonstrating how unsophisticated minds praise tired humor. Sir Kay fabricates a wild tale of capturing Hank through prayer and combat, exaggerating Hank into a flesh-eating monster. Condemned to burn at the stake on July twenty-first, Hank realizes back in his cell that an upcoming solar eclipse might save his life.
CHAPTER IV. SIR DINADAN THE HUMORIST → CHAPTER V. AN INSPIRATION
Scheduled for execution early, Hank claims power over the sun as guards lead him to the stake. When a total solar eclipse darkens Camelot, terrified royals and peasants plead for mercy and grant Hank second place in executive authority. Installed in lavish quarters, Hank finds state apartments grand yet lacking basic modern conveniences like soap, matches, or proper wall art.
CHAPTER VI. THE ECLIPSE → CHAPTER VII. MERLIN’S TOWER
Hank takes the title of The Boss, quickly establishing a national patent office to spark industrial growth. Recognizing that political rule requires structured governance rather than mere royal titles, he works quietly to introduce technology. Meanwhile, routine weekly tournaments continue at court, displaying colorful bravado that strikes Hank's practical mind as absurdly inefficient human bullfights.
CHAPTER VIII. THE BOSS → CHAPTER IX. THE TOURNAMENT
Hank secretly builds factories, trade schools, and Protestant congregations to educate selected youths outside the Church's repressive oversight. Challenged by Sir Sagramor to a future duel, Hank delays to build industrial infrastructure first. When a wandering woman named Sandy arrives with a grandiose tale of captive princesses, Arthur commands Hank to embark on a knight-errant quest.
CHAPTER X. BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION → CHAPTER XI.
Riding alongside Sandy in full armor under the autumn sun, Hank experiences intense physical misery from sweat and trapped dust. Lacking pockets or removable headgear, he realizes chivalric gear prioritizes style over human comfort. When they halt by a stream, Hank laments missing matches and food, noting how knights depend recklessly on chance rather than basic advance planning.
CHAPTER XII. SLOW TORTURE → CHAPTER XIII. FREEMEN
Hank overpays peasants three pennies for breakfast, frightening them by blowing pipe smoke through his helmet so they mistake him for a dragon. After capturing seven knights, Hank listens to Sandy recount interminable, unstructured chivalric lore. Her endless repetition and total lack of statistical accuracy wear on Hank's logical mind as they ride onward together.
CHAPTER XIV. “DEFEND THEE, LORD” → CHAPTER XV. SANDY’S TALE
Encountering knights dressed as sandwich-board advertisers for soap, Hank uses covert marketing to promote hygiene and undermine superstition. At the castle of Queen Morgan le Fay, he witnesses her murder a page for a minor blunder while maintaining strict daily religious devotions. Hank intervenes to save victims from her dungeon, struck by how nobility combines outward piety with ruthless despotism.
CHAPTER XVI. MORGAN LE FAY → CHAPTER XVII. A ROYAL BANQUET
Hank commutes a peasant's death sentence for killing royal deer, reassigning the executioner to direct a newly formed municipal band. Reflecting on broad social control, he argues that religion functions best when divided into forty competing sects rather than centralized into an established political machine. Resuming their trek, Sandy recounts chivalric battles that Hank views as mere trade competition.
CHAPTER XVIII. IN THE QUEEN’S DUNGEONS → CHAPTER XIX.
Hank encounters knights advertising tooth-wash and stove-polish, redirecting chivalric energy toward commercial utility. Upon reaching Sandy's supposed ogre castle, Hank discovers only a pigsty, yet Sandy sincerely perceives swine as enchanted princesses. This stark delusion demonstrates how early training leads rational humans to accept absurd beliefs without question.
CHAPTER XX. THE OGRE’S CASTLE → CHAPTER XXI. THE PILGRIMS
Traveling with a procession of devout pilgrims, Hank reaches the Valley of Holiness, where a famous miraculous fountain has stopped flowing. Monks despair as solemn bells toll, fearing total ruin for their monastery. The abbot begs Hank for assistance, but Hank politely declines to interfere until Merlin's spellwork fails, respecting professional etiquette while preparing a technological solution.
CHAPTER XXII. THE HOLY FOUNTAIN
After Merlin fails to restore the dry well with smoky powders and chantings, Hank uses gunpowder, pumps, and fireworks to dramatically reopen the water source. The spectacular display solidifies his absolute authority over superstitious onlookers. Hank then builds a modern bathhouse in the monastery, convincing the abbot that cleanliness will not banish divine favor.
CHAPTER XXIII. RESTORATION OF THE FOUNTAIN → CHAPTER XXIV.
Sitting as judge, King Arthur shows humane intentions yet consistently favors upper-class interests due to aristocratic upbringing. Hank institutes competitive examinations for military commissions, challenging birthright privileges. He also launches the kingdom's first newspaper, introducing printed news and public discourse into sixth-century Britain to foster civic awareness.
CHAPTER XXV. A COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION → CHAPTER XXVI.
Disguised as poor freemen to observe peasant life directly, Hank crops Arthur's long hair and clothes him in coarse linen. As they trudge along rural roads, Arthur's erect posture and commanding stride repeatedly betray his noble origins. Hank patiently drills the monarch to slouch, lower his gaze, and imitate the crushed bearing born of lifelong servitude.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE YANKEE AND THE KING TRAVEL INCOGNITO →…
Entering a secluded hut, Hank and Arthur discover a starving mother dying of smallpox alongside her deceased family members under Church interdict. Arthur demonstrates genuine bravery by carrying a sick child down from a loft despite contagion risks. As local lords burn peasant homes for minor offenses, the horror highlights the extreme brutality inflicted upon the lower classes.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE SMALLPOX HUT → CHAPTER XXX.
Resting at a hamlet, Hank chats with Marco the charcoal-burner to analyze local labor conditions. At a Sunday feast hosted by Dowley the prosperous blacksmith, Hank argues that high nominal wages mean nothing if living costs consume total income. Hank's lavish spending astonishes the humble guests, sparking economic debate between protected trade regions and free market principles.
CHAPTER XXXI. MARCO → CHAPTER XXXII. DOWLEY’S HUMILIATION
Dowley and local craftsmen grow hostile when Hank proves their protected wages purchase fewer goods than lower nominal wages elsewhere. The argument turns dangerous, forcing Hank and Arthur to flee an angry mob. Betrayed by a local lord, both men are captured and sold into slavery for seven dollars, reduced instantly to chained laborers.
CHAPTER XXXIII. SIXTH CENTURY POLITICAL ECONOMY → CHAPTER…
Marched to London in heavy chains, Arthur broods bitterly over his seven-dollar valuation rather than his lost kingdom. In the city, Hank observes public executions and spots a telegraph wire, realizing Clarence's secret industrial network remains active. Hank secretly picks his padlock, planning a dramatic escape to reclaim control over the realm.
CHAPTER XXXV. A PITIFUL INCIDENT → CHAPTER XXXVI.
Escaping his captors, Hank gets arrested after a night scuffle, while Arthur and fellow slaves are condemned to hang for killing their master. Led to the gallows outside London, Arthur proudly claims his kingship, drawing jeers from the crowd. Just as the noose settles, Sir Launcelot and five hundred knights arrive on bicycles to rescue the king.
CHAPTER XXXVII. AN AWFUL PREDICAMENT → CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Facing Sir Sagramor in a public tournament, Hank uses a lasso to unhorse armored knights before shooting challengers with revolvers. Dismantling chivalric prestige in a single day, he openly unveils his factories, electric grids, and phone systems. Over three years, Britain transforms into a modern republic, while Hank marries Sandy and raises their child.
CHAPTER XXXIX. THE YANKEE’S FIGHT WITH THE KNIGHTS → CHAPTER…
While Hank travels abroad to care for his ill child, the Church issues a papal interdict, shutting down electric infrastructure and mobilizing knights. Returning to find Camelot deserted, Hank joins Clarence at Merlin's Cave, surrounded by fifty-two loyal young men. The Church rallies feudal forces, declaring holy war against modern technology and democratic reform.
CHAPTER XLI. THE INTERDICT → CHAPTER XLII. WAR!
Entrenched in Merlin's Cave behind electric fences and Gatling guns, Hank's forces annihilate twenty-five thousand attacking knights in a devastating defense. However, the rotting corpses trap the defenders inside, breeding deadly disease. Disguised as a woman, Merlin casts a sleeping spell over Hank for thirteen centuries before getting killed, leaving Clarence to finish the manuscript.
CHAPTER XLIII. THE BATTLE OF THE SAND BELT → CHAPTER XLIV.
A sharp satirical examination of medieval romance, technological progress, human vanity, and political power.