‘I never listen at doors,’ said the Princess. But she thought to herself: ‘I listen inside the room sometimes, though.’ And she ran upstairs to fetch her feather. She got it very quickly, and ran downstairs as lightly as possible. They had shut the door of the room, but she opened it boldly, and stepped in as quietly as she could. Mumkie looked up, as if he expected to see some one come in; but of course he did not.
‘It’s the wind, I suppose,’ said Wopole. ‘Anyhow, you’d better shut it. Some one might be listening.’
So Mumkie got up and shut it, and then went back to his seat again.
‘You say you can’t try to murder this Prince again?’ he said.
Wopole shook his head.
‘It’s no good. I tried last night, and I got such a box on my ear that I was half killed.’
‘But who gave it to you?’
‘How on earth should I know? I could see nobody. Just as I was raising the pistol to shoot—bang! it came. I wouldn’t try it again for anything.’
‘What a nuisance it is that you let that feather fall out of the eagle’s tail. You could have done it easily then. As it is, I don’t know what to do. You won’t try again, and I’m too old, and no one else in the country would hurt him for love or money. There’s only one other thing to do, and it’s not an easy task, anyway.’