ng up and beginning to
dress himself, "I was wakened by the mewing of a cat that sat upon a
wall of the palace, just outside my window. As the noise disturbed me, I
reached out in the dark and caught up something and threw it at the cat,
to frighten the creature away. I did not know what it was that I threw,
and I was too sleepy to care; but probably it was your shoe, since it is
now missing."

"Then," said the boy, in a despairing tone of voice, "your carelessness
has ruined me, as well as yourself, King Rinkitink, for in that shoe was
concealed the magic power which protected us from danger."

[Illustration]

The King's face became very serious when he heard this and he uttered a
low whistle of surprise and regret.

"Why on earth did you not warn me of this?" he demanded. "And why did
you keep such a precious power in an old shoe? And why didn't you put
the shoe under a pillow? You were very wrong, my lad, in not confiding
to me, your faithful friend, the secret, for in that case the shoe would
not now be lost."

To all this Inga had no answer. He sat on the side of his bed, with
hanging head, utterly disconsolate, and seeing this, Rinkitink had pity
for his sorrow.

"Come!" cried the King; "let us go out at once and look for the shoe
which I threw at the cat. It must even now be lying in the yard of the
palace."

This suggestion roused the boy to action. He at once threw open the door
and in his stocking feet rushed down the staircase, closely followed by
Rinkitink. But although they looked on both sides of the palace wall and
in every possible crack and corner where a shoe might lodge, they failed
to find it.

After a half hour's careful search the boy said sorrowfully:

"Someone must have passed by, as we slept, and taken the precious shoe,
not knowing its value. To us, King Rinkitink, this will be a dreadful
misfortune, for we are surrounded by dangers from which we have now no
protection. Luckily I have the other shoe left, within which is the
magic power that gives me strength; so all is not lost."

Then he told Rinkitink, in a few words, the secret of the wonderful
pearls, and how he had recovered them from the ruins and hidden them in
his shoes, and how they had enabled him to drive King Gos and his men
from Regos and to capture the city. The King was much astonished, and
when the story was concluded he said to Inga:

"What did you do with the other shoe?"

"Why, I left it in our bedroom," repl