"But surely you can help us to get into the Fairy Valley!" cried Lulu. "I might get into trouble if I did too much talking," replied the little one. "But why do you ask me so foolish and childish a question, when you have all the means in your power without my aid?" "What do you mean?" cried Zuzu eagerly. "It is true, we have three wishes every week, though foolishly, like most Twins, we often wish the same thing, and so shorten our allowance. In this way we have nearly used up all our wishes for this week, and I am sure we can not wait another whole week before trying to get to the Fairy Valley, where the Queen lives and whence all the gold and jewels come." "Aha!" laughed the little black one. "Suppose I should tell you. Could you keep the secret to yourselves?" "To be sure we could," cried both the Twins. "We would not tell a soul on the Island." "Then why not go?" said the little one. "Have you not the Enchanted Banjo?" "We could get it," said Zuzu, "and it plays for us." "That I know," said the Wicked Fairy, "and with the Enchanted Banjo can you not do all manner of things? For instance, although I do not say it or admit it, would not the Enchanted Banjo put the Dragon to sleep?" "Precisely what the Private Secretary said, and indeed what the Dragon himself wished!" said Zuzu. "And if the Dragon were asleep," said the Wicked Fairy, "would it not be easy to unscrew his wooden leg, and leave him so that he could not get away, no matter how hard he tried? And if he were helpless, what could hinder you from slipping past him and going down the Golden Ladder into the Valley of the Fairies, which he guards so faithfully?" "The Golden Ladder?" cried Lulu. "What is that?" "You must be a very ignorant person not to know," said the Fairy. "That is the stairway of the Fairies, very long but not hard to travel, if you know the way. It leads to the Fairy Valley, that is sure; and it is also sure that no person except a Fairy has ever been down that Golden Ladder, no, not in the thousands of years that I have lived on this Island; and that is the truth and you may depend on it, even if I am called a Wicked Fairy and answer the Black Cricket instead of the White." "But could we ever get back again?" asked Zuzu fearfully. "That is for you to determine," said the Wicked Fairy, scowling. In his excitement over these matters Zuzu had let go of the Cricket, which, finding itself at liberty, now hopped away and crawled under a log. As he stooped over to pick up the Cricket, Zuzu noticed that the Wicked Fairy was gone; so they could ask no more about this matter of the Golden Ladder into the Valley of the Fairies. [Illustration] CHAPTER XVI THE KING AND THE WICKED FAIRY