Not long after this a great lamentation was made in the country because the king’s daughter had been carried away by a dragon. The king was overcome by grief and sorrowed for her day and night, and he had it proclaimed that whoever rescued the princess should have her for his wife.
The four brothers said to one another, “This will be an opportunity for us to show what we can do;” and they agreed to sally forth together to deliver the princess.
“I will soon discover where she is,” said the star-gazer.
He looked through his telescope, and said: “I see her already. She is a long way from here, sitting on a rock in the middle of the sea, and the dragon is there watching her.”
Then they went to the king, who, at their request, furnished them with a ship, in which they sailed away over the sea till they approached the rock. The princess was sitting there, and the dragon was asleep with his head on her lap.
“I dare not shoot,” said the hunter, “for fear I should kill the princess as well as the dragon.”
“Then I will try my luck,” said the thief, and he rowed a boat to the rock and took the princess away so lightly and stealthily that the monster continued to sleep and snore.
The thief got the princess safely on board the ship, and, full of joy, the brothers spread the sails to the wind, and steered for the open sea. But the dragon soon awoke, and when he realized that the princess was gone, he started in pursuit of the ship, flapping through the air at his best speed, snapping his tail savagely, and foaming at the mouth with rage. Just as he was hovering over the ship about to plunge down on it, the huntsman took aim with his unerring gun and shot the dragon through the heart. The monster was killed instantly, but his huge body fell on the ship and smashed it to pieces.
The brothers and the princess managed each to grasp a plank and thus kept themselves afloat. They were in great straits, but the tailor was equal to the emergency. With his wonderful needle he sewed together the planks on which he and his companions were sustaining themselves, and then they paddled about and collected all the other floating fragments of the ship. The tailor stitched them together so cleverly that in a short time the ship was seaworthy once more, and they sailed happily home.