f the well.

Bilbil had lain down to sleep and the refrain of a merry song came in
muffled tones from the well, proving that Rinkitink was making a
patient endeavor to amuse himself.

"I've found a rope!" Inga called down to him; and then the boy
proceeded to make a loop in one end of the rope, for the King to put
his arms through, and the other end he placed over the drum of the
windlass. He now aroused Bilbil and fastened the rope firmly around the
goat's shoulders.

"Are you ready?" asked the boy, leaning over the well.

"I am," replied the King.

"And I am not," growled the goat, "for I have not yet had my nap out.
Old Rinki will be safe enough in the well until I've slept an hour or
two longer."

"But it is damp in the well," protested the boy, "and King Rinkitink
may catch the rheumatism, so that he will have to ride upon your back
wherever he goes."

Hearing this, Bilbil jumped up at once.

"Let's get him out," he said earnestly.

"Hold fast!" shouted Inga to the King. Then he seized the rope and
helped Bilbil to pull. They soon found the task more difficult than
they had supposed. Once or twice the King's weight threatened to drag
both the boy and the goat into the well, to keep Rinkitink company. But
they pulled sturdily, being aware of this danger, and at last the King
popped out of the hole and fell sprawling full length upon the ground.

For a time he lay panting and breathing hard to get his breath back,
while Inga and Bilbil were likewise worn out from their long strain at
the rope; so the three rested quietly upon the grass and looked at one
another in silence.

Finally Bilbil said to the King: "I'm surprised at you. Why were you so
foolish as to fall down that well? Don't you know it's a dangerous
thing to do? You might have broken your neck in the fall, or been
drowned in the water."

"Bilbil," replied the King solemnly, "you're a goat. Do you imagine I
fell down the well on purpose?"

"I imagine nothing," retorted Bilbil. "I only know you were there."

"There? Heh-heh-heek-keek-eek! To be sure I was there," laughed
Rinkitink. "There in a dark hole, where there was no light; there in a
watery well, where the wetness soaked me through and
through--keek-eek-eek-eek!--through and through!"

"How did it happen?" inquired Inga.

"I was running away from the enemy," explained the King, "and I was
carelessly looking over my shoulder at the same time, to see if they
were chasing me. So I d