"Dear me! No, no," cried the mouse, terribly frightened; "Kapchack is awful in a rage—my life would not be worth a minute's purchase. Let the stoat go."
"Not I," said the stoat; "I have had to suffer enough already, on account of my relation to that rascal the weasel, whom Kapchack suspects of designs upon his throne. I will not go."
"Nor I," said the fox; "Kapchack has looked angrily at me for a long time—he cannot forget my royal descent. Let the hawk go."
"I! I!" said Ki Ki. "Nonsense; Kapchack does not much like me now; he gave me a hint the other day not to soar too high. I suppose he did not like to think of my overlooking him kissing pretty La Schach."
"Wretch! horrid wretch!" screamed the jay, at the mention of the kissing, in a paroxysm of jealousy. "Pecking is too good for him!"
"Send the jackdaw or the crow," said Ki Ki.
"No, no," said Kauc and Cloctaw together. "Try the wood-pigeon."
"I go?—whoo," said the pigeon. "Impossible. Kapchack told me to my face the other day that he more than half suspected me of plotting to go over to Choo Hoo. I dare not say such a thing to him."
"Nor I," said the dove. "Why not the owl?"
"The fact is," said the owl, "my relations with Kapchack are of a peculiar and delicate nature. Although I occupy the position of a trusted counsellor, and have the honour to be chief secretary of state, that very position forbids my taking liberties, and it is clear if I did, and were in consequence banished from the court, that I could not plead your cause. Now, the rat——"