e said she would not live an hour after the lake was gone.

But she never cried.

Proclamation was made to all the kingdom, that whosoever should discover
the cause of the lake's decrease, would be rewarded after a princely
fashion. Hum-Drum and Kopy-Keck applied themselves to their physics and
metaphysics; but in vain. Not even they could suggest a cause.

Now the fact was that the old princess was at the root of the mischief.
When she heard that her niece found more pleasure in the water than any
one else had out of it, she went into a rage, and cursed herself for her
want of foresight,

"But," said she, "I will soon set all right. The king and the people
shall die of thirst; their brains shall boil and frizzle in their skulls
before I will lose my revenge."

And she laughed a ferocious laugh, that made the hairs on the back of
her black cat stand erect with terror.

Then she went to an old chest in the room, and opening it, took out what
looked like a piece of dried seaweed. This she threw into a tub of
water. Then she threw some powder into the water, and stirred it with
her bare arm, muttering over it words of hideous sound, and yet more
hideous import. Then she set the tub aside, and took from the chest a
huge bunch of a hundred rusty keys, that clattered in her shaking hands.
Then she sat down and proceeded to oil them all. Before she had
finished, out from the tub, the water of which had kept on a slow motion
ever since she had ceased stirring it, came the head and half the body
of a huge gray snake. But the witch did not look round. It grew out of
the tub, waving itself backwards and forwards with a slow horizontal
motion, till it reached the princess, when it laid its head upon her
shoulder, and gave a low hiss in her ear. She started--but with joy; and
seeing the head resting on her shoulder, drew it towards her and kissed
it. Then she drew it all out of the tub, and wound it round her body. It
was one of those dreadful creatures which few have ever beheld--the
White Snakes of Darkness.

Then she took the keys and went down to her cellar; and as she unlocked
the door she said to herself:

"This _is_ worth living for!"

Locking the door behind her, she descended a few steps into the cellar,
and crossing it, unlocked another door into a dark, narrow passage. She
locked this also behind her, and descended a few more steps. If any one
had followed the witch-princess, he would have heard her unlock exact