"
answered the child. Even while she spoke, Trot was busy with the knots
in the cords, and presently she had unbound Tiggle, who soon got upon
his feet. "Now I'll go to one end of the passage and make a noise,"
said she, "and when the guard runs to see what it is, you must run the
other way. Outside the palace, Jimfred and Fredjim are on guard, but if
you tip over the bench they are seated on, you can easily escape them."

"I'll do that, all right," promised the delighted Tiggle. "You've made
a friend of me, little girl, and if ever I can help you, I'll do it
with pleasure."

Then Trot started for the door, and Tiggle could no longer see her
because she was not now touching him. The man was much surprised at her
disappearance, but listened carefully, and when he heard the girl make
a noise at one end of the corridor, he opened the door and ran in the
opposite direction as he had been told to do.

Of course, the guard could not discover what made the noise, and Trot
ran little risk, as she was careful not to let him touch her. When
Tiggle had escaped, the little girl wandered through the palace in
search of Cap'n Bill, but soon decided such a quest in the dark was
likely to fail and she must wait until morning. She was tired, too, and
thought she would find a vacant room--of which there were many in the
big palace--and go to sleep until daylight. She remembered there was a
comfortable vacant room just opposite the suite of the Six Snubnosed
Princesses, so she stole softly up to it and tried the door. It was
locked, but the key was outside, as the Blueskins seldom took a door
key from its place. So she turned the key, opened the door, and walked
in.

Now this was the chamber in which Ghip-Ghisizzle had been confined by
the Princesses, his arms being bound tight to his body, but his legs
left free. The Boolooroo in his search had failed to discover what had
become of Ghip Ghisizzle, but the poor man had been worried every
minute for fear his retreat would be discovered or that the terrible
Princesses would come for him and nag him until he went crazy. There
was one window in his room, and the prisoner had managed to push open
the sash with his knees. Looking out, he found that a few feet below
the window was the broad wall that ran all around the palace gardens. A
little way to the right the wall joined the wall of the City, being on
the same level with it.

Ghip-Ghisizzle had been thinking deeply upon this discovery