“Now,” she went on, “us damsels are getting this thing up for the knights that are tourmeying. If the king knew it, he wouldn’t leave us do it, because he’d think it’s beneath our dignity. But he don’t know it. He’s off. He’s to the chase. But all the king’s household is inside the palace, and us damsels have to be secret, getting up our preparations. Now we must divide up the--er--responsibility.” I listened, spellbound. “I thought you and Betty didn’t like to play Pretend,” I was surprised into saying. “Why, we’ll pretend if there’s anything to pretend _about_ that’s real,” said Margaret Amelia, haughtily. They told us where in the palace the various ingredients were likely to be found. Red mosquito-netting, perhaps, in the cellar--at this time of day fairly safe. Red and violet ink in the library--very dangerous indeed at this hour. Cold coffee--almost unobtainable. Green tissue paper, to be taken from the flower-pots in the dining-room--exceedingly dangerous. Blue and orange, if discoverable at all, then in the Christmas tree box in the trunk room--attended by few perils as to meetings en route, but in respect to appropriating what was desired, by the greatest perils of all. This last adventure the Rodmans themselves heroically undertook. It was also conceded that, on their return from their quest--provided they ever did return alive--it would be theirs to procure the necessary cold coffee. The other adventures were distributed, and Mary Elizabeth and I were told off together to penetrate the cellar in search of red mosquito-netting. The bottles had already been collected, and these little Harold Rodman was left to guard and luxuriously to fill with water and luxuriously to empty. There was an outside cellar door, and it was closed. This invited Mary Elizabeth and me to an expedition or two before we even entered. We slid from the top to the bottom, sitting, standing, and backward. Then, since Harold was beginning to observe us with some attention, we lifted the ring--_the ring_--in the door and descended. “Aladdin immediately beheld bags of inexhaustible riches,” said Mary Elizabeth, almost reverently. First, there was a long, narrow passage lined with ash barrels, a derelict coal scuttle, starch boxes, mummies of brooms, and the like. But at this point if we had chanced on the red mosquito-netting, we should have felt distinctly cheated of some right. A little farther on, however, the passage branched, and we stood in delighted uncertainty. If the giant lived one way and the gorgon the other, which was our way?