"Not so loud," begged Mombi, raising her stick and glancing uneasily over her shoulder, as if she half suspected someone were listening. Then, seeing Pajuka was going to honk again, she added defiantly, "I don't remember what I did with him!"
Now Snip, who loved King Kinda Jolly with all his heart, was stunned at this dreadful news. Undecided whether to run for help or stay and listen, he finally decided to stay and crept close to the inner edge of the sill.
Pajuka seemed stunned too. "How frightful," choked the goose dolefully, "how careless of you to mislay the King. How dare you forget?"
"Well, there's no use quarreling about it," grumbled Mombi. "Who cares anyway? Ozma is Queen now and nobody even remembers there was a King of Oz!"
"Of Oz!" Snip, between relief at finding nothing had happened to King Kinda Jolly and shock at the old witch's words, lost his hold on the window bars and fell straight into Mombi's arms.
"A spy!" shrieked Mombi, beginning to shake him backward and forward. "A spy!"
"Now who's making a racket," demanded Pajuka triumphantly. "Keep that up and you'll have the whole castle about our ears. Besides, if he's a spy, where is his spy glass?"
"Idiot!" hissed Mombi, but she lowered her voice and stopped shaking Snip. "Why, you're as simple as you look," she muttered contemptuously.
"And you're as wicked," retorted the goose, staring sharply at Snip. "Let that boy alone or I'll honk my head off." Snip's ears were buzzing from the shaking and he looked gratefully at Pajuka.
"Do you think I'm going to let him carry his tales to Kinda Jolly? No sir! Into the soup kettle with him," puffed Mombi, rushing Snip toward the stove. But at her first step, the white goose flung himself at her head with such an outcry that she stopped at once.