d was
just going to gobble it up, when she was stopped by the pleading tones
of the little creature, saying, 'If you will only spare my life I may be
of great service to you. I will do everything in my power for you; for I
am the King of the Mice, and if I perish the whole race will die out.'

'So be it,' said Waska. 'I will spare your life; but in return you must
do something for me. In this castle there lives a Princess, the wicked
wife of my dear master. She has stolen away his magic ring. You must get
it away from her at whatever cost; do you hear? Till you have done this
I won't take my claws out of your fur.'

'Good!' replied the mouse; 'I will do what you ask.' And, so saying,
he summoned all the mice in his kingdom together. A countless number
of mice, small and big, brown and grey, assembled, and formed a circle
round their king, who was a prisoner under Waska's claws. Turning to
them he said: 'Dear and faithful subjects, who ever among you will steal
the magic ring from the strange Princess will release me from a cruel
death; and I shall honour him above all the other mice in the kingdom.'

Instantly a tiny mouse stepped forward and said: 'I often creep about
the Princess's bedroom at night, and I have noticed that she has a ring
which she treasures as the apple of her eye. All day she wears it on her
finger, and at night she keeps it in her mouth. I will undertake, sire,
to steal away the ring for you.'

And the tiny mouse tripped away into the bedroom of the Princess, and
waited for nightfall; then, when the Princess had fallen asleep, it
crept up on to her bed, and gnawed a hole in the pillow, through which
it dragged one by one little down feathers, and threw them under the
Princess's nose. And the fluff flew into the Princess's nose, and into
her mouth, and starting up she sneezed and coughed, and the ring fell
out of her mouth on to the coverlet. In a flash the tiny mouse had
seized it, and brought it to Waska as a ransom for the King of the Mice.
Thereupon Waska and Schurka started off, and travelled night and day
till they reached the stone tower where Martin was imprisoned; and the
cat climbed up the window, and called out to him:

'Martin, dear master, are you still alive?'

'Ah! Waska, my faithful little cat, is that you?' replied a weak voice.
'I am dying of hunger. For three days I have not tasted food.'

'Be of good heart, dear master,' replied Waska; 'from this day forth you
will know not