“I don’t know,” Janey replied, rather puzzled. “Just see Gran’pa! My, doesn’t he look nice in that purple velvet!”
“We are very anxious to know how you got rid of the wicked Witch when you returned to the Castle,” Gran’ma said to the Princess.
The Princess laughed a merry laugh and replied, “I am afraid you will be disappointed with my adventure, for when I left you upon the mountain side at Mr. Tiptoe’s Cottage-Cave I wished the Magic Umbrella to take me to my mother, but as I flew over the City of Nite I changed my mind.
“‘No,’ I said to myself, ‘I will go right to the Castle and face the wicked Witch!’
“And so I wished to go to the Castle instead of to my mother. And when I climbed out of the Magic Umbrella I ran right into the Castle and it was empty! I went through all the rooms and found no one; the wicked Witch was not there at all!”
“Did you go into the little room at the top of the Blue Tower?” Mr. Tiptoe asked. “That is where she was the day Mrs. Tiptoe and I found her.”
“Yes, I went there, too,” the Princess replied, “and cobwebs were all over everything. I knew the wicked creature had not been there for months.”
“For years, to be more exact,” interrupted the Chief of Detectives.
“How do you know?” the Princess asked the Chief of Detectives in surprise.