It was pitch dark in the room, and Trot didn’t know how to make a light.  After a moment’s thought she began feeling her way to the window, stumbling over objects as she went.  Every time she made a noise, someone groaned, and that made the child uneasy.  At last she found a window and managed to open the shutters and let the moonlight in.  It wasn’t a very strong moonlight, but it enabled her to examine the interior of the room.  In the center stood the Great Knife, which the Boolooroo used to split people in two when he patched them, and at one side was a dark form huddled upon the floor and securely bound.

Trot hastened to this form and knelt beside it, but was disappointed to find it was only Tiggle.  The man stirred a little and rolled against Trot’s knee, when she at once became visible to him.  “Oh, it’s the Earth child,” said he.  “Are you condemned to be patched, too, little one?”

“No,” answered Trot.  “Tell me where Cap’n Bill is.”

“I can’t,” said Tiggle.  “The Boolooroo has hidden him until tomorrow morning, when he’s to be patched to me.  Ghip-Ghisizzle was to have been my mate, but Ghip escaped, being carried away by the Six Snubnosed Princesses.”

“Why?” she asked.

“One of them means to marry him,” explained Tiggle.

“Oh, that’s worse than being patched!” cried Trot.

“Much worse,” said Tiggle with a groan.

But now an idea occurred to the girl.  “Would you like to escape?” she asked the captive.  “If I get you out of the palace, can you hide yourself so that you won’t be found?”

“Certainly!” he declared.  “I know a house where I can hide so snugly that all the Boolooroo’s soldiers cannot find me.”

“All right,” said Trot.  “I’ll do it, for when you’re gone, the Boolooroo will have no one to patch Cap’n Bill to.”

“He may find someone else,” suggested the prisoner.

“But it will take him time to do that, and time is all I want,” answered the child.  Even while she spoke, Trot was busy with the knots in the cords, and presently she had unbound Tiggle, who soon got upon his feet.  “Now I’ll go to one end of the passage and make a noise,” said she, “and when the guard runs to see what it is, you must run the other way.  Outside the palace, Jimfred and Fredjim are on guard, but if you tip over the bench they are seated on, you can easily escape them.”

“I’ll do that, all right,” promised the delighted Tiggle.  “You’ve made a friend of me, little girl, and if ever I can help you, I’ll do it with pleasure.”

Then Trot started for the door, and Tiggle could no longer see her because she was not now touching him.  The man was much surprised at her disappearance, but listened carefully, and when he heard the girl make a noise at one end of the corridor, he opened the door and ran in the opposite direction as he had been told to do.