as soon as they tugged at the rope the captain and the lieutenant pulled up the princesses, the one after the other. but when they were safely up, the soldier thought it was foolish of him not to have gone up before the princesses, for he had not very much belief in his comrades. he thought he would first try them, so he put a heavy lump of gold in the basket and got out of the way. when the basket was half-way up they cut the rope and the lump of gold fell to the bottom with such a crash that the pieces flew about his ears.