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And Art, the King's Steward, said: "The Coming of the King of the Cats into King Connal's dominion is a story still to be told. To your father's Son in all truth be it told" Quick-to-Grab, in consultation with the Seven Elders of the Cat-Kin decided that the Blacksmith's forge would be a fit residence for the King of the Cats. It was clean and commodious.
He went creeping by hedges, loping across fields, bounding through woods, until he came under the branch in the forest where the King of the Cats rested, his whiskers standing round his face the breadth of a dinner-dish. When he came-under the branch Quick-to-Grab mewed a little in Egyptian, which is the ceremonial language of the Cats. The King of the Cats came to the end of the branch.
"It is not the time to seek the tracks of the Eagle-Emperor," said Quick-to-Grab. "Stay for a while longer in men's houses." "Never," said the King of the Cats. "Never will I stay by the hearthstone and submit to be abused by cocks and hounds and men. I will range the world openly now and seek out the enemy of the Cat-Kind, the Eagle-Emperor."
"When you have done talking amongst yourselves," said the cat, "would you tell me where you met His Majesty?" "Nothing will I tell you," said the man, "until I hear your own name from you." "My name," said the cat, "is Quick-to-Grab, and well you should know it." "Not a word will we tell you," said the woman, "until we hear what the King of the Cats is doing in Ireland.
"And be submissive and eat scraps?" "That will be only in the daytime," said Quick-to-Grab, "in the night-time you will have your court and your feasts." "At least, let the place I stay in be no hovel," said the King of the Cats. "I shall refuse to go into a house where there are washing days damp clothes before a fire and all that."
Without saying a word the King of the Cats jumped down from the tree. Old-fellow Badger was coming through the glade. When he saw the King of the Cats crouching there he stopped and bared his terrible teeth. The King of the Cats bent himself to spring. Then Old-fellow Badger turned round and went lumbering back. "Oh, by my claws and fur," said Quick-to-Grab, "you are the real King of the Cats.
"No cat has thought of reaching him," said Quick-to-Grab, "they only think of keeping out of his way. Now let me advise your Majesty. None of our enemies must know that you have come into this country. You must appear as a common cat." "What, me?" said the King of the Cats. "Yes, your Majesty, for the sake of the deliverance of your subjects you will have to appear as a common cat."
Every night he went out to a feast that the cats had prepared for him. Quick-to-Grab always walked back to the Forge with him to give a Prime Minister's advice. The King of the Cats took this advice. He used even to twitch his ears as a mark of respect to Mahon, the hound whose kennel was just outside the forge, and to the hounds that Mahon had to visit him.
They were about to talk again when Quick-to-Grab put down his tail and ran up another tree greatly frightened. "What ails you?" said the King of the Cats. "Can you not stay still while you are speaking to your lord and master?" "Old-fellow Badger is coming this way," said Quick-to-Grab, "and when he puts his teeth in one he never lets go."
"May no prosperity come to this house," said he, "for denying me when I asked where the King of the Cats was pleased to speak to you." But he put his ear to the door when he went outside and he heard the woman say, "The horse will tell him that we saw the King of the Cats a mile this side of the Giant's Causeway." Quick-to-Grab now knew where the King of the Cats might be found.
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