“How much do you want for it?” said the king.
“Thirty pounds.”
Well, the king gave him the money without any more ado, adding that, if he found the princesses, he would get half of his kingdom.
They fell to drinking again and had a splendid time.
There was a drummer near them, and he heard them saying that they were to look for the princesses. So he went to the king and said: “I hear that your majesty is prostrated by sore trouble. I, too, would like to look for the princesses.”
“How much do you want for it?”
“Forty pounds, at least.”
The king gave him the money without more ado. The two officers and the drummer left that inn for another, and so they went on spending their money recklessly in one drinking-house after another. The drummer went with the other two, but he was more careful than they were. He was not such a spendthrift as the two officers.
They asked him where he meant to go.
“Wherever you go, I will go too,” he replied.