leaving his pickaxe and clue at home, and taking only his usual lumps
of
bread and pease-pudding, went down the mountain to the king's
house. He
climbed over the wall, and remained in the garden the whole night,
creeping on hands and knees from one spot to the other, and lying at
full length with his ear to the ground, listening. But he heard nothing
except the tread of the men-at-arms as they marched about, whose
observation, as the night was cloudy and there was no moon, he had
little difficulty in avoiding. For several following nights, he
continued to haunt the garden and listen, but with no success.
At length, early one evening, whether it was that he had got careless of
his own safety, or that the growing moon had become strong enough
to
expose him, his watching came to a sudden end. He was creeping from
behind the rock where the stream ran out, for he had been listening all
round it in the hope it might convey to his ear some indication of the
whereabouts of the goblin miners, when just as he came into the
moonlight on the lawn, a whizz in his ear and a blow upon his leg
startled him. He instantly squatted in the hope of eluding further
notice. But when he heard the sound of running feet, he jumped up to
take the chance of escape by flight. He fell, however, with a keen shoot
Madhuri Noah
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