"So I have," said the major, with a smile. "I'd forgotten that, and you are right, too. I couldn't have been a mouse. I should have put what I was going to say differently. If I had ever been a mouse--that's the way it should be--if I had ever been a mouse and had been foolish enough to stick my head into a mouse-trap after a piece of cheese without knowing that I should get it out again, I should not have been here to-day, in all likelihood. Therefore the general is right. Try on the invisible coat, Jimmieboy, and let's see how it works before you risk calling on Fortyforefoot." "Here it is," said the sprite, holding out his hands with apparently nothing in them. Jimmieboy laughed a little, it seemed so odd to have a person say "here it is" and yet not be able to see the object referred to. He reached out his hand, however, to take the coat, relying upon the sprite's statement that it was there, and was very much surprised to find that his hand did actually touch something that felt like a coat, and in fact was a coat, though entirely invisible. "Shall I help you on with it?" asked the major. "Perhaps you'd better," said Jimmieboy. "It feels a little small for me." "That's what I was afraid of," said the sprite. "You see it covers me all over from head to foot--that is the coat covers all but my head and the hood covers that--but you are very much taller than I am." Here Jimmieboy, having at last got into the coat and buttoned it about him, had the strange sensation of seeing all of himself disappear excepting his head and legs. These remaining uncovered were of course still in sight. "Ha-ha-ha!" laughed the major, merrily, as Jimmieboy walked around. "That is the most ridiculous thing I ever saw. You're nothing but a head and pair of legs." Jimmieboy smiled and placed the hood over his head and the major roared louder than ever. "Ha-ha-ha-ha!" he cried. "Oh, my--oh, dear! That's funnier still--now you're nothing but a pair of legs. Hee-hee-hee! Take it off quick or I'll die with laughter." Jimmieboy took off the hood. "I'm afraid it won't do, Spritey," he said. "Fortyforefoot would see my legs and if he caught them I'd be lost." "That's a fact," said the sprite, thoughtfully. "The coat is almost two feet too short for you." "It's more than two feet too short," laughed the major. "It's two whole legs too short." "This is no time for joking," said the sprite. "We've too much to talk about to use our mouths for laughing." "All right," said the major. "I won't get off any more, or if I do they won't be the kind to make you laugh. They will be sad jokes--like yours. But I say, boys," he added, "I have a scheme. It is of course the scheme of a soldier and may be attended by danger, but if it is successful all the more credit to the one who succeeds. We three people can attack Fortyforefoot openly, capture him, and not let him go until he provides us with the provisions."