"I have searched everywhere in the room, and cannot find it." "But why bother me about such a small thing ?" inquired Rinkitink.

"A shoe is only a shoe, and you can easily get another one.

But, stay! Perhaps it was your shoe which I threw at the cat last night." "The cat!" cried Inga.

"What do you mean ?" "Why, in the night," explained Rinkitink, sitting up and beginning to dress himself, "I was wakened by the mewing of a cat that sat upon a wall of the palace, just outside my window.

As the noise disturbed me, I reached out in the dark and caught up something and threw it at the cat, to frighten the creature away.