Of course, the guard could not discover what made the noise, and Trot ran little risk, as she was careful not to let him touch her.  When Tiggle had escaped, the little girl wandered through the palace in search of Cap’n Bill, but soon decided such a quest in the dark was likely to fail and she must wait until morning.  She was tired, too, and thought she would find a vacant room—­of which there were many in the big palace—­and go to sleep until daylight.  She remembered there was a comfortable vacant room just opposite the suite of the Six Snubnosed Princesses, so she stole softly up to it and tried the door.  It was locked, but the key was outside, as the Blueskins seldom took a door key from its place.  So she turned the key, opened the door, and walked in.

Now this was the chamber in which Ghip-Ghisizzle had been confined by the Princesses, his arms being bound tight to his body, but his legs left free.  The Boolooroo in his search had failed to discover what had become of Ghip Ghisizzle, but the poor man had been worried every minute for fear his retreat would be discovered or that the terrible Princesses would come for him and nag him until he went crazy.  There was one window in his room, and the prisoner had managed to push open the sash with his knees.  Looking out, he found that a few feet below the window was the broad wall that ran all around the palace gardens.  A little way to the right the wall joined the wall of the City, being on the same level with it.

Ghip-Ghisizzle had been thinking deeply upon this discovery, and he decided that if anyone entered his room, he would get through the window, leap down upon the wall, and try in this way to escape.  It would be a dangerous leap, for as his arms were bound, he might topple off the wall into the garden; but he resolved to take this chance.  Therefore, when Trot rattled at the door of his room, Ghip-Ghisizzle ran and seated himself upon the window sill, dangling his long legs over the edge.  When she finally opened the door, he slipped off and let himself fall to the wall, where he doubled up in a heap.  The next minute, however, he had scrambled to his knees and was running swiftly along the garden wall.

Trot, finding the window open, came and looked out, and she saw the Majordomo’s tall form hastening along the top of the wall.  The guards saw him, too, outlined against the sky in the moonlight, and they began yelling at him to stop, but Ghip-Ghisizzle kept right on until he reached the city Wall, when he began to follow that.  More guards were yelling now, running along the foot of the wall to keep the fugitive in sight, and people began to pour out of the houses and join in the chase.