“Cheese! cheese!” cried the robber-magician, stamping his foot in a rage; “I tell you it’s gold.”
“It isn’t! it’s cheese!” said Teddy. “Look! I have some just like it; I’ll show you,” and running to the keg where he had left his trap he pulled it out and held it up for the robber to see.
As soon as the robber-magician saw the cheese in the trap his fingers began to work and his mouth to water. “Oh, what a fine rich piece of gold!” he cried. “How do you get it out?”
“I don’t know,” said Teddy. “I don’t think it comes out.”
“There must be some way,” cried the robber. “Let me see,” and taking the trap from Teddy he put it down on the floor and began to pick and pry at the bars, but he could not get the cheese out, and the more he tried the more eager he grew. “There’s one way,” he muttered to himself, looking up at Teddy suspiciously from under his slouch hat.
“How is that?” asked Teddy.
“If one were only a rat one could get at it fast enough,” said the robber-magician.
“Yes, but you’re not,” said Teddy.
“All the same it might be managed,” said the magician. Again he tore and tore at the bars, and he grew so eager that he seemed to forget about everything but the cheese. “I’ll do it,” he cried, “yes, I will.” Then he laid of his great soft hat, and crossing his forefingers he cried:
“Innocent me! Innocent me!
As I was once again I will be.”