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"I could not cook a fish to save me from starvation." "For my part," said Bilbil, "I never eat fish, but I can tell you how to cook them, for I have often watched the palace cooks at their work." And so, with the goat's assistance, the boy and the King managed to prepare the fish and cook them, after which they were eaten with good appetite.
"Didn't the warriors get you, either?" "If they had," calmly replied Bilbil, "I shouldn't be here." "But how did you escape?" asked the boy. "Easily enough. I kept my mouth shut and stayed away from the rascals," said the goat. "I knew that the soldiers would not care for a skinny old beast like me, for to the eye of a stranger I seem good for nothing.
But Rinkitink did not fall into the pit; his body remained suspended in the air until he put out his foot and stepped to the solid floor, when the opening suddenly closed again. "I appreciate Your Majesty's friendship," remarked Rinkitink, as calmly as if nothing had happened, "but I am getting tired with standing. Will you kindly send for my goat, Bilbil, that I may sit upon his back to rest?"
As he wiped his brow with a yellow silk handkerchief he sang in a merry voice: "A sailor bold am I, I hold, But boldness will not row a boat. So I confess I'm in distress And just as useless as the goat." "Please leave me out of your verses," said Bilbil with a snort of anger. "When I make a fool of myself, Bilbil, I'm a goat," replied Rinkitink. "Not so," insisted Bilbil.
"Ask someone with brains, my boy; I'm sure I can't tell," replied the King, bursting into one of his merry fits of laughter. Bilbil rose to his hoofs and walked away in a dignified manner, leaving Rinkitink chuckling anew at the sour expression of the animal's face.
"Did he own a talking goat?" "He did," answered Bilbil. "Then he was wrong to have been born at all. Cheek-eek-eek-eek, oo, hoo!" chuckled Rinkitink, his fat body shaking with merriment. "But it's hard to prevent oneself from being born; there's no chance for protest, eh, Bilbil?" "Who is telling this story, I'd like to know," demanded the goat, with anger.
As it was, not a knife touched them and even Bilbil gave a gruff laugh at the failure of Kaliko's clever magic. The goat wandered here and there in the cavern, carrying Rinkitink upon his back, and neither of them paid the slightest heed to the knives, although the glitter of the hundreds of polished blades was rather trying to their eyes.
But the boy had no intention of allowing Bilbil and the King to share the secret of the royal treasures of Pingaree; so, although both the goat and its master demanded to know why the marble blocks had been moved, and how it would benefit them, Inga begged them to wait until the next morning, when he hoped to be able to satisfy them that their hard work had not been in vain.
Looking out of a window, with the intention of rebuking those who dared thus to disturb him, Bilbil saw the courtyard quite filled with warriors and knew from this that the palace had in some way again fallen into the hands of the enemy.
Not until all are rescued will I consent to leave these islands." "Quite right!" exclaimed Bilbil. "On second thought," said Rinkitink, "I agree with you. If you are careful to sleep in your shoes, and never take them off again, I believe you will be able to perform the task you have undertaken."
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