midnight
`` You see , the showman , Fire-Eater , gave me some gold pieces and said to me : ` Go , and take them to your father ! ' and instead I met on the road a Fox and a Cat , who said to me : ` Would you like those pieces of gold to become a thousand or two ? Come with us and we will take you to the Field of Miracles , ' and I said : ` Let us go . ' And they said : ` Let us stop at the inn of The Red Craw-Fish , ' and after midnight they left . And when I awoke I found that they were no longer there , because they had gone away . Then I began to travel by night , for you can not imagine how dark it was ; and on that account I met on the road two assassins in charcoal sacks who said to me : ` Out with your money , ' and I said to them : ` I have got none , ' because I had hidden the four gold pieces in my mouth , and one of the assassins tried to put his hand in my mouth , and I bit his hand off and spat it out , but instead of a hand it was a cat 's paw . And the assassins ran after me , and I ran , and ran , until at last they caught me and tied me by the neck to a tree in this wood , and said to me : ` Tomorrow we shall return here and then you will be dead with your mouth open and we shall be able to carry off the pieces of gold that you have hidden under your tongue . ''