The soldier pulled out his cards, and they played on, but it was all the same. The devils cheated in every kind of way, but could not win a game. "Go and fetch the gold," says the oldest devil. "Aye, aye, grandfather," says the little devil, and goes scuttling out of the room. Forty times he ran out, and forty times he came staggering back with a bushel of gold between his shoulders. They played on. The soldier won every game and all the gold, asked if they had any more money to lose, put his cards in his pocket and lit his pipe. The devils looked at all the money they had lost. It seemed a pity to lose all that good silver and gold. "Tear him to pieces, brothers," they cried, "tear him to pieces, eat him and have done!" The soldier tapped his little pipe on the table. "First make sure," says he, "who eats whom." And with that he whips out his sack, and, says he, to the devils, who were all gnashing their teeth and making ready to fall on him, "what do you call this?" "It's a sack," said the devils. "Is it?" says the soldier. "Then, by the word of God, get into it!" And the next minute all those devils were tumbling over each other and getting into the sack, squeezing in one on the top of another until the last one had got inside. Then the soldier tied up the sack with a good double knot, hung it on a nail, and lay down to sleep. In the morning the Tzar sent his servants. "Go," says the Tzar, "and see what has happened to the soldier who spent the night in the empty palace. If the unclean spirits have made an end of him, then you must sweep up his bones and make all clean." The servants came, all ready to lament for the brave soldier done to death by the unclean, and there was the soldier walking cheerfully from one room to another, smoking his little pipe. "Well done, soldier! We never thought to see you alive. And how did you spend the night? How did you manage against the devils?" "Devils?" says the soldier. "I wish all men I have played cards against had paid their debts so honestly. Have a look at the silver and gold I won from them. Look at the heaps of money lying on the floor." The servants looked at the silver and gold and touched it to see if it was real. But there was no doubt about that. I wish I had more in my pocket of the same sort. "Now, brothers," said the soldier, "off with you as quick as you can, go and fetch two blacksmiths here on the run. And let them bring with them an iron anvil and the two heaviest hammers in the forge." The servants asked no questions, but hurried to the smithy, and the two blacksmiths came running, with anvil and hammers. Giants they were, the strongest men in all the town. "Now," says the soldier, "take that sack from the nail and lay it on the anvil and let me see how the blacksmiths of this town can set about their work." The blacksmiths took the sack from the nail. "Devil take it, what a weight," they said to each other.