He did not have a heart, a rather sluggish liver performing for him instead the necessary functions of the other organ, and, as he approached Queen Titania's palace with due caution, it thumped with torpid pleasure.
If there was anything he liked above all others it was sneaking, and the job which Dragonfel had given him presented most attractive possibilities.
Noting a gurgling brook in the proximity of the portcullis, he took great pains to soak the round pad-like ends of his tentacles in water so that when they were applied to a flat surface they would adhere through atmospheric pressure sufficiently to bear his weight.
In such a manner, when no one was looking, did the wily rascal climb up the high garden-wall and down the other side, wriggling and squirming with ill-concealed chuckles toward the palace.
Only the magic dove that Euphrosyne had left, which was preening itself on the edge of a fountain's basin, saw him, with the result that it was strongly tempted to fly back to the Goddess of Mirth forthwith.
At the fountain the Human Octopus took the precaution to again soak his multifarious pads in water, after which with his goggle eyes he cocked his head in a professional survey of the palace. Then he began to ascend one of its towering walls. Higher and higher, and still higher, he went in perfect safety until at last he gained the roof and squatted on the top of a chimney.
There he skillfully compressed himself to fit the dimensions of the flue, after which he began to let himself gently down like an elevator-car. A great volume of black, greasy smoke from the kitchen suddenly belched forth and hid him from sight.
It was not so long afterward that, all covered with soot, he crawled out of the big open fireplace in the throne-room. Before he did so he made sure to satisfy himself that no one was there. But there was no telling when someone might come, and he knew it behooved him to secrete himself and instantly.
His goggle eyes oscillated in all directions around the room, and he craftily selected for his hiding-place a great tall clock that stood up close against the wall in a corner by itself.
It was not a grandfather's clock, for there were no grandfathers in Queen Titania's kingdom. It was what might more properly be termed a grandmother's clock.