So she went sorrowfully back to the camp, followed by the Pinkies, and asked Rosalie what could be done.

“I’m sure I do not know,” replied the Witch.  “I cannot use another magic charm until three days have expired, but if they do not harm Cap’n Bill during that time, I believe I can then find a way to save him.”

“Three days is a long time,” remarked Trot dismally.

“The Boolooroo may decide to patch him at once,” added Button-Bright with equal sadness, for he, too, mourned the sailor’s loss.

“It can’t be helped,” replied Rosalie.  “I am not a fairy, my dears, but merely a witch, and so my magic powers are limited.  We can only hope that the Boolooroo won’t patch Cap’n Bill for three days.”

When night settled down upon the camp of the Pinkies, where many tents had now been pitched, all the invaders were filled with gloom.  The band tried to enliven them by playing the “Dead March,” but it was not a success.  The Pinkies were despondent in spite of the fact that they had repulsed the attack of the Blues, for as yet they had not succeeded in gaining the City or finding the Magic Umbrella, and the blue dusk of this dread country—­which was so different from their own land of sunsets—­made them all very nervous.  They saw the moon rise for the first time in their lives, and its cold, silvery radiance made them shudder and prevented them from going to sleep.  Trot tried to interest them by telling them that on the Earth the people had both the sun and the moon and loved them both; but nevertheless it is certain that had not the terrible Fog Bank stood between them and the Pink Land, most of the invading army would have promptly deserted and gone back home.

Trot couldn’t sleep, either, she was so worried over Cap’n Bill.  She went back to the tent where Rosalie and Button-Bright were sitting in the moonlight and asked the Witch if there was no way in which she could secretly get into the City of the Blues and search for her friend.  Rosalie thought it over for some time and then replied: 

“We can make a rope ladder that will enable you to climb to the top of the wall and descend into the City.  But if anyone should see you, you would be captured.”

“I’ll risk that,” said the child, excited at the prospect of gaining the side of Cap’n Bill in this adventurous way.  “Please make the rope ladder at once, Rosalie!”

So the Witch took some ropes and knotted together a ladder long enough to reach the top of the wall.  When it was finished, the three—­Rosalie, Trot and Button-Bright—­stole out into the moonlight and crept unobserved into the shadow of the wall.  The Blueskins were not keeping a very close watch, as they were confident the Pinkies could not get into the City.

The hardest part of Rosalie’s task was to toss up one end of the rope ladder until it would catch on some projection on top of the wall.  There were few such projections, but after creeping along the wall for a distance, they saw the end of a broken flagstaff near the top edge.  The Witch tossed up the ladder, trying to catch it upon this point, and on the seventh attempt she succeeded.