Dick did not know what to say. He hated to lie, but there was the Princess to be thought of, and Humpty Dumpty, and Mother Goose, and Meg, and Bab, and dozens of other considerations. So he decided not to tell _quite_ all the truth. “I—they are very pretty,” he admitted, hanging his head and feeling very much ashamed; for his many faults had never included lying before. “It is against the law, and you must go to prison,” declared the soldier. “Probably the Wicked King, our master, will have you beheaded without delay; and, for my part, I think that even that will be better than you deserve!” Dick felt so sad and angry at the thought of failure—to say nothing of the danger that he was in—that he could have cried; only, being a boy, of course he didn’t! But he wished _hard_ for some idea to come to him that would show him a way out of his trouble. And suddenly a big Dragon-Fly whizzed up to him, apparently on its way to the green flowers on the tree overhead. With a sudden impulse Dick whispered “Help me, dear, good, kind Dragon-Fly!” as he had to the flowers. The Dragon-Fly wheeled in its whirring flight, and flew close to his lips. “Tell Bizzybuzz, the Goblin,” murmured Dick; and the insect darted swiftly away. Dick could not tell whether or no it had heard him or would repeat his message, but he felt a trifle happier. “Come on, Thief!” said the man-at-arms, pulling Dick along by the arm. At this point the Princess stuck her head out of the turret window once more. “What have you there?” she asked very sweetly. The men answered her most respectfully; for though she was a prisoner in a turret of her father’s castle, they all looked up to her with something approaching adoration,—something which, with all their fear, they never gave her cruel father. “This is a thief, your Highness,” said the head man in red, bowing very low. “He was about to steal some of the flowers from the beautiful tree that grows under your Highness’s window!” “Why, the horrid little wretch!” exclaimed the Princess, pretending to be extremely angry. “Just you bring him up to me! I should like to look at any little boy who could be so terribly wicked!” “We must take him to prison at once, your Highness,” protested the man. But she persisted. “I want to see him!” she said. “I’d like to box his wicked ears myself! That lovely tree! Why, looking at it and counting its blooms every morning is one of the few pleasures I have!” And she pretended to sob bitterly. “Bring him up!” she cried again. “Bring him up, I say!” “Oh, well!” said the man-at-arms, with a shrug of his shoulders. “Of course, if your august Highness insists—” And Dick was taken into the Palace by a side door, and marched up ever so many stairs to the Princess’s room. There they found, keeping guard, several men, who let them pass, looking quite amazed. And so they came at last into the Princess Star’s tower-prison.