His mother got him what he asked for, and Curdie set out. Close beside the door by which the princess left the garden for the mountain, stood a great rock, and by climbing it Curdie got over the wall. He tied his clue to a stone just inside the channel of the stream, and took his pickaxe with him. He had not gone far before he encountered a horrid creature coming toward the mouth. The spot was too narrow for two of almost any size or shape, and besides Curdie had no wish to let the creature pass. Not being able to use his pickaxe, however, he had a severe struggle with him, and it was only after receiving many bites, some of them bad, that he succeeded in killing him with his pocket knife. Having dragged him out, he made haste to get in again before another should stop up the way. I need not follow him farther in this night's adventures. He returned to his breakfast, satisfied that the goblins were mining in the direction of the palace--on so low a level that their intention must, he thought, be to burrow under the walls of the king's house, and rise up inside it--in order, he fully believed, to lay hands on the little princess, and carry her off for a wife to their horrid Harelip. CHAPTER XXIV IRENE BEHAVES LIKE A PRINCESS WHEN the princess awoke from the sweetest of sleeps, she found her nurse bending above her, the housekeeper looking over the nurse's shoulder, and the laundry-maid looking over the housekeeper's. The room was full of women-servants; and the gentlemen-at-arms, with a long column of men-servants behind them, were peeping, or trying to peep in at the door of the nursery. "Are those horrid creatures gone?" asked the princess, remembering first what had terrified her in the morning. "You naughty little princess!" cried Lootie. Her face was very pale, with red streaks in it, and she looked as if she were going to shake her; but Irene said nothing--only waited to hear what should come next. "How _could_ you get under the clothes like that, and make us all fancy you were lost! And keep it up all day too! You _are_ the most obstinate child! It's anything but fun to us, I can tell you!" It was the only way the nurse could account for her disappearance. "I didn't do that, Lootie," said Irene, very quietly. "Don't tell stories!" cried her nurse quite rudely. "I shall tell you nothing at all," said Irene. "That's just as bad," said the nurse. "Just as bad to say nothing at all as to tell stories!" exclaimed the princess. "I will ask my papa about that. He won't say so. And I don't think he will like you to say so." "Tell me directly what you mean by it!" screamed the nurse, half wild with anger at the princess, and fright at the possible consequences to herself. "When I tell you the truth, Lootie," said the princess, who somehow did not feel at all angry, "you say to me _Don't tell stories_: it would appear that I must tell stories before you will believe me." "You are very rude, my dear princess," said the nurse.