The Cabinetmaker's Wife prepared her trap for Understump. She
emptied everything out of her bedroom so there would be no place
for Understump to hide. Next, she gathered up her two sacks of
flour and set them in the room. "Understump!" she
called out, "I'm ready for you!"
"What must I do?" The
voice came from inside a chest she had removed from her room.
"You must follow me into my
bedroom. You must remain over the floor and under the ceiling,
just as I will. And you must remain between the four walls, just
as I will. And you must remain in the room with me until I leave
it."
Understump agreed to the terms and
Atalaya was rather pleased with herself as she tucked her hair up
under her night cap and entered the bedroom, closing the door
behind her.
There was no sign of the invisible
fairy in the empty room, but that didn't worry her; that was why
she'd brought the flour. She opened one sack and started tossing
the fine, white powder around the room. "You can't hide from
me, Understump," she said and she slowly covered the room in
white. "With this flour on you I'll be able to see where you
are, even if you are invisible." There was no sign of him
yet, but she still had a sack of flour to spread around.
"Don't think that you can
avoid me, Understump," Atalaya called out. "Even if you
avoid the flour I throw, you can't avoid the flour on the floor.
I'll see your footprints and catch you in a moment."
The room looked like it was covered
in a blanket of snow and Atalaya was so covered with flour
herself that she looked like a ghost. But there was still no sign
of Understump. As still as can be, the Cabinetmaker's Wife looked
around the room for anything that disturbed the flour. A little
lump. A tiny cloud. But there was nothing.