[Illustration: There sat his mother by the fire, and in her arms lay the
princess fast asleep.]
JUST as the consolation of this resolve dawned upon his mind, and he
was
turning away for the cellar to follow the goblins into their hole,
something touched his hand. It was the slightest touch, and when he
looked he could see nothing. Feeling and peering about in the gray of
the dawn, his fingers came upon a tight thread. He looked again, and
narrowly, but still could see nothing. It flashed upon him that this
must be the princess's thread. Without saying a word, for he knew no
one
would believe him any more than he had believed the princess, he
followed the thread with his finger, contrived to give Lootie the slip,
and was soon out of the house, and on the mountain-side--surprised
that,
if the thread were indeed her grandmother's messenger, it should have
led the princess, as he supposed it must, into the mountain, where she
would be certain to meet the goblins rushing back enraged from their
defeat. But he hurried on in the hope of overtaking her first. When he
arrived however at the place where