they retired early to their big sleeping apartment.

"In the morning," said the boy to Rinkitink, as he
was undressing for bed, "I shall begin the search for
my father and mother and the people of Pingaree. And,
when they are found and rescued, we will all go home
again, and be as happy as we were before."

They carefully bolted the door of their room, that no
one might enter, and then got into their beds, where
Rinkitink fell asleep in an instant. The boy lay awake
for a while thinking over the day's adventures, but
presently he fell sound asleep also, and so weary was
he that nothing disturbed his slumber until he awakened
next morning with a ray of sunshine in his eyes, which
had crept into the room through the open window by King
Rinkitink's bed.

Resolving to begin the search for his parents without
any unnecessary delay, Inga at once got out of bed and
began to dress himself, while Rinkitink, in the other
bed, was still sleeping peacefully. But when the boy
had put on both his stockings and began looking for his
shoes, he could find but one of them. The left shoe,
that containing the Pink Pearl, was missing.

Filled with anxiety at this discovery, Inga searched
through the entire room, looking underneath the beds
and divans and chairs and behind the draperies and in
the corners and every other possible place a shoe might