much exhausted to
let him have a chance. Then, for the creatures, if he could but find
his axe again, he would have no fear of them; and if it were not for
the queen's horrid shoes, he would have no fear at all.

Meantime, until they should come again at night, there was nothing for
him to do but forge new rhymes, now his only weapons. He had no
intention of using them at present, of course; but it was well to have
a stock, for he might live to want them, and the manufacture of them
would help to while away the time.

CHAPTER 20

Irene's Clue

That same morning early, the princess woke in a terrible fright. There
was a hideous noise in her room--creatures snarling and hissing and
rocketing about as if they were fighting. The moment she came to
herself, she remembered something she had never thought of again--what
her grandmother told her to do when she was frightened. She
immediately took off her ring and put it under her pillow. As she did
so she fancied she felt a finger and thumb take it gently from under
her palm. 'It must be my grandmother!' she said to herself, and the
thought gave her such courage that she stopped to put on her dainty
little slippers before running from the room. While doing this she
caught sight of a long cloak of sky-blue, thrown over the back of a
chair by the bedside. She had never seen it before but it was
evidently waiting for her. She put it on, and then, feeling with the
forefinger of her right hand, soon found her grandmother's thread,
which she proceeded at once to follow, expecting it would lead her
straight up the old stair. When she reached the door she found it went
down and ran along the floor, so that she had almost to crawl in order
to keep a hold of it. Then, to her surprise, and somewhat to her
dismay, she found that instead of leading her towards the stair it
turned in quite the opposite direction. It led her through certain
narrow passages towards the kitchen, turning aside ere she reached it,
and guiding her to a door which communicated with a small back yard.
Some of the maids were already up, and this door was standing open.
Across the yard the thread still ran along the ground, until it brought
her to a door in the wall which opened upon the Mountainside. When she
had passed through, the thread rose to about half her height, and she
could hold it with ease as she walked. It led her straight up the
mountain.

The cause of her alarm was less frightf