The travelers, at the suggestion of the cat and fox, stop overnight at The Inn of the Red Lobster, where the cat and fox claim to be not hungry but feast on enormous portions of decadent food. The pair promises to wake Pinocchio at midnight to continue toward the Field of Wonders in the City of Simple Simons, but Pinocchio is surprised when the innkeeper wakes him at midnight and tells him that the pair left hours ago, claiming to have a family emergency.

Pinocchio pays for the group’s supper the previous evening, which costs him a gold coin, and sets off in the night toward the field. The ghost of the cricket appears and warns Pinocchio that anyone who offers instant riches is a swindler or a fool and that the fox and cat are assassins, but Pinocchio, irritated, dismisses him.

Pinocchio reflects that the cricket was just trying to intimidate him. He believes that assassins must be an invention of mothers and fathers in order to control their children.

Suddenly, two hooded figures appear from the bushes and demand Pinocchio’s money. He refuses but screams when they threaten to kill his father after they kill him.