ers and every other possible place a shoe
might be. He tried the door, and found it still bolted; so, with
growing uneasiness, the boy was forced to admit that the precious shoe
was not in the room.

With a throbbing heart he aroused his companion.

"King Rinkitink," said he, "do you know what has become of my left
shoe?"

"Your shoe!" exclaimed the King, giving a wide yawn and rubbing his
eyes to get the sleep out of them. "Have you lost a shoe?"

"Yes," said Inga. "I have searched everywhere in the room, and cannot
find it."

"But why bother me about such a small thing?" inquired Rinkitink. "A
shoe is only a shoe, and you can easily get another one. But, stay!
Perhaps it was your shoe which I threw at the cat last night."

"The cat!" cried Inga. "What do you mean?"

"Why, in the night," explained Rinkitink, sitting 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."

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 fin