"Why didn't you come in by the door?—you know how paneful a window is to me."
"When is a cow?" said Bumbus, perching himself on the back of his chair and fanning himself with his foot.
"Sometimes, I think—" began Nickel Plate, angrily.
"Wrong answer; besides it's not strictly true," said Bumbus, turning his large eyes here and there as he viewed his master.
"A truce to foolishness," said Nickel Plate, "what news—but wait—" and taking two wads of cotton out of his pocket he stuffed them in two cracks in the wall—"walls have ears—we will stop them up—proceed."
"Honey Girl has disappeared," whispered Bumbus.
"Gone! and her golden comb?"
"She has taken it with her."
"Gone," growled Nickel Plate—"but wait, I am not angry enough for a real villain"; lighting a match he quickly swallowed it. "Ha, ha! now I am indeed a fire eater. Gadzooks, varlet! and how did she escape us?"
Bumbus hung his head. "Alas, sir, with much care did I carry Glucose to the Palace of the Queen Bee to substitute her for Honey Girl—dressed to look exactly like her, even to a gold-plated comb. I had bribed Drone, the sentry, to admit us in the dead of night. Creeping softly through the corridors of the Castle, with Glucose in my arms, I came to the door of Honey Girl. I opened the door and crept quietly into the room; all was still. I reached the dainty couch and found—"