“Thank you very much,” said the Rainbow Cat. “You will see; in an hour’s time you will all be free. Good-bye for the present.”
He was so excited that he jumped clean out of the window—mandolin, bag and all.
But he was quite all right.
You know, even ordinary cats are supposed always to fall on their feet, and of course a fairy cat——!
When he reached the ground he wrapped himself in his cloak, pulled his hat well over his eyes and stuck the peacock’s feather in the front of it.
“Now I look just like a wandering musician,” he said, and he went boldly up to the door of the wizard’s tower and pulled the bell.
The magician himself came to the door, but he opened it only the tiniest little bit.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” he said in a very gruff voice.
“I am a poor wandering musician,” said the cat. “May I come in and give you a tune?”
The wizard looked at him suspiciously. “What have you got in that bag?” he asked, giving it a kick with his foot, so that the bundle of lightning made a rattling noise.