"But we've had no breakfast," began Snip impatiently. Then, realizing that Tora could not hear one word, he walked along in a resigned silence, thinking how annoying it must be to have butterfly ears. "And yet," mused Snip slowly, "it might be rather fun, too. One could send one's ears to places one didn't care to go—to school and to lectures and all that sort of thing, and take them off when folks scolded or the conversation grew dull." He had thought up quite a number of uses for butterfly ears, when the tailor, himself, broke the silence.
"Perhaps it would amuse you to hear a little about the Blanks," began Tora in his pleasant voice. "They were not always invisible as now, but they were always vain and haughty and trying to outshine one another in appearance. In fact," sighed the old man, with a grave nod, "they thought of nothing but dress and all of their time and money was spent for new and splendid apparel. As some of the inhabitants were handsomer than others there was always an argument as to who really looked the best.
"Shortly after I, myself, came to Blankenburg, Vanette, the Queen, walking in a small woods behind the palace, discovered a hidden pool. Looking into the water to admire her reflection, she accidentally dropped her handkerchief. Before she could snatch it out the handkerchief had disappeared and, when she reached into the pond to search for it, her hand and arm suddenly became invisible."
Tora looked down to see how Snip was taking the story and, finding him interested, continued dreamily: "For a time the Queen was exceedingly frightened, but all at once a wicked plan popped into her head. Hurrying back to the palace, she ordered her servants to carry a bucket of the magic water to everyone in the city. She then commanded them to bathe in the enchanted water and since then they have been perfectly invisible. Vanette, herself, who is old and fat and exceedingly jealous of the young girls, bathed in the water too and is now as invisible as the rest of her subjects. So now, when they dress up in their fine clothes, faces don't count at all, and the Queen always wins all the beauty prizes. That's why it's against the law to have a face in Blankenburg," continued Tora solemnly. "I'm glad we escaped before they got yours."
Snip was glad, too, but wanted to ask how Tora had managed to save his own face, and the tailor, guessing what was in the little boy's mind, finished up quickly: "For some reason or other the magic water had no effect upon me and as I was old and ugly and quite useful in my own way, they finally stopped bothering me."
Picking up a long, crooked stick and evidently thinking he had talked enough, Tora began to whistle an old Oz tune. Walking along solemnly beside him Snip could not help wondering how the old tailor had ever come to be a prisoner in Blankenburg and whether he had always had butterfly ears.
"I'll ask him as soon as they come back," decided Snip, but meantime he was growing hungrier and hungrier, for since the drink of cream in Catty Corners he had had nothing at all to eat. He kept a sharp lookout for fruit and nut trees and presently, in a small grove to the right, he caught a glimpse of a perfectly enormous breakfast bush.
Motioning for Tora to wait for him, Snip darted off. The tailor looked slightly puzzled but, making no objection, sat down on a rock and went on with his whistling. Hastening back with two steaming breakfast dishes in his hands, Snip was surprised to hear a loud, plaintive voice mingling with Tora's tune. Quickening his steps the little boy saw a tall, kingly figure waving indignant arms at the tailor.
"Are you crazy?" he shouted angrily. "I ask you once again, may I borrow a breakfast or a bite of lunch? It's for a Princess. Can't you answer me?" But Tora, fixing his eye on a fluffy cloud skimming across the sky, went calmly on with his tune. "He is deaf to my pleas," puffed the stranger, whirling round unsteadily and almost bumping into Snip. "Deaf and dumb!"
"He isn't deaf," explained the little boy breathlessly. "He has just mislaid his ears. I mean he's let them off for awhile."
"Let them off? Dorothy! Dorothy! Come at once! Here is a man with mislaid ears!" shrilled the stranger, hobbling off. Snip stared after him, open mouthed, as he wobbled wildly down the road.
Kabumpo to the Rescue
You have guessed that it was our old friend Humpy who had begged a breakfast of Tora, the tailor. You see the Elegant Elephant, travelling like the wind itself, had carried Dorothy and the dummy almost to the exact spot where Snip and Tora had fallen out of the Fare-well. Then, exceedingly fatigued by his unaccustomed exertion, Kabumpo had gone off in search of some lunch.
Snip had scarcely recovered from the shock of Humpy's sudden disappearance when back he came, holding Dorothy tightly by the hand. Now the little button boy had often seen pictures of Dorothy in the history books of Kimbaloo, but she had always been dressed as a Princess, so we cannot blame him for failing to recognize the shabby little girl who stood staring so earnestly at the tired tailor of Oz.
"Why he has no ears at all," cried Dorothy. Then, catching sight of Snip, she stopped short. "We were wondering whether you could lend us some lunch," faltered Dorothy, talking very fast to cover her embarrassment. "Kabumpo can eat tree-tops and Humpy does not eat at all, but I've had nothing but a tomato since breakfast and I'm very hungry."
"There's a breakfast bush over yonder," answered Snip, waving sulkily toward the grove. Tora had saved his face and he was not going to have him laughed at. Dorothy turned to see for herself and, as she did, Tora arose and moved quickly over to the dummy.
"You remind me of someone I used to know," sighed the tailor, fingering Humpy's green velvet robe dreamily. "Who are you? Are you real?"
"Well, not quite. You see," began Dorothy, "he's a moving picture dummy." Suddenly remembering that the tailor could not hear her, she turned back to Snip. "Wherearehis ears?" asked the little girl nervously.
"Here they come now!" cried Snip, forgetting his vexation and, setting down the two breakfast dishes, he waved his cap excitedly in the air. As Snip waved and pointed, Dorothy saw the tailor's ears whizz giddily over a lilac bush and then settle softly, one on each side of his head.
"Who did you say you were?" asked Tora calmly, continuing his conversation with Humpy and paying no more attention to his ears than we would pay to a couple of flies.
"A dummy!" whispered Humpy, blinking his painted eyes, while his voice grew fainter and fainter with astonishment. "I am a dummy, but what in Oz are you?"
"A tailor," answered Tora with a wink at Snip. "Well, that's a splendid cloak you're wearing, and a crown too. Are you a king, dummy?"
"No, he's a dummy king," explained Dorothy, looking longingly at the hot breakfasts. "If we could just sit down and have something to eat I could tell you all about him. Then, maybe, you would tell me a little about your—" Dorothy was going to say ears but, fearing this might not be quite polite, she changed it quickly to selves. The little girl cast a curious sidelong glance at Snip, but the button boy was gazing intently at the dummy.
"Why we're looking for a king," exploded Snip excitedly. "Oh Tora, do you suppose this could be he?"
"Why not do as this little lady suggests?" interrupted Tora, for he could see that Dorothy was weary as well as hungry. "Let's have breakfast together and then talk things over."
"Well, don't start until I come back," called the little boy, as Dorothy settled comfortably down beside the tailor. In a moment Snip had returned with another breakfast and, while Humpy looked on curiously, they opened the silver dishes Snip had picked from the breakfast bush. What could be cozier? Bacon, eggs, toast and a small sealed cup of coffee grew neatly in each one, but it never occurred to Dorothy, Snip or the tailor to be surprised at this, for breakfast bushes are quite common in Oz. Humpy, however, had seen nothing like this in the movies and kept up a low muttering to himself, as he watched them eat one and then another dainty from the dishes.
"Now then," smiled the tailor, after he had taken a long sip of coffee, "suppose you begin." He looked expectantly at Dorothy. "I think you must be the little girl my ears were telling me of a while back, but where is the elephant?"
"Mercy!" spluttered Dorothy, nearly choking on her coffee. "Do your ears tell you everything?"
"Oh no, just odds and ends of things," answered Tora, reaching up to touch them affectionately.
"Well, did they tell you about me?" inquired Humpy, straightening his crown importantly.
"No," smiled the old man. "That's just what we're waiting to hear, though I declare I have seen you somewhere before. Have you ever seen me?"
Humpy shook his head very positively and Dorothy, settling back against a tree, proceeded with her story. Introducing herself modestly and beginning with Wish Way, she related every single thing that had happened since her fall into California.
Snip was especially interested in Dorothy's sudden change in size. "Is that what tore your dress?" he asked curiously.
The little girl nodded and Tora, ruffling up his silver locks and looking first at Dorothy and then at Humpy, murmured over and over: "Well, I can hardly believe my ears, I can hardly believe my ears!"
Dorothy could not help thinking that the tailor's ears were hard for anyone to believe, but feeling it would be rude to say so, went hurriedly on with her adventures, telling of her meeting with the Scooters and with the Elegant Elephant, whom she described at some length.
"And now," concluded the little girl, finishing off the last of the toast, "we're going straight to the Emerald City. Where areyougoing?"
"Why we're going to the Emerald City too!" burst out Snip, "and maybe Dorothy can help us find Pajuka and warn Ozma!"
"Warn Ozma?" cried Dorothy, jumping up in a hurry. "Why, what is the matter?"
"Better tell her," advised the tailor gravely, while Humpy edged close to the little button boy and looked earnestly up into his face.
"Well," began Snip, feeling a bit shy in the presence of a person as important as Princess Dorothy of Oz, "Mombi is trying to find the lost King of Oz and turn Ozma to a piano. Pajuka, he's a goose, I mean a Prime Minister, and he's trying to find the King too, and if we don't get to the Emerald City first that old witch will steal all the magic and capture everybody."
"Why this is a regular thriller," puffed the dummy, pushing back his crown. "Witches, geese, lost kings and everything. Oh, I'm enjoying this picture immensely. Couldn't I fall for this lost king, Dorothy?"
"I thought you were the King, yourself, at first," explained Snip, "but of course, if Dorothy found you in America, you couldn't possibly be the King of Oz. Besides, I don't believe Mombi would turn the King to a dummy, do you?"
"Oh, anything can happen in the pictures," said Humpy carelessly.
No one had time to tell Humpy he was not in a picture, for Dorothy, shuddering at the mere mention of old Mombi, insisted on Snip telling all over again just how he had discovered the witch's wicked plans. This Snip did, from the strange conversation between Pajuka and Mombi in the castle kitchen of Kimbaloo to his encounter with the Blanks and his escape with the tired tailor of Oz. When he came to the part in the story where Mombi had flung him down the well, Humpy fell over backwards and Dorothy gasped with indignation.
"Oh, we'll have to hurry, we'll have to hurry!" exclaimed the little girl, clasping her hands anxiously, "for if Mombi reaches the Emerald City first something dreadful will happen. I'm glad the King of Oz is alive, but I'm not going to have Ozma turned to a piano. Oh dear! Oh dear! Why doesn't Kabumpo hurry back?"
"Hadn't we better start anyway?" asked Snip, who was growing more and more worried about Pajuka. He felt sure Mombi meant to get rid of the goose as soon as she found the King. "Let's go without the elephant," he proposed eagerly.
"No, we'd better wait," advised Dorothy, "for Kabumpo can travel a hundred times faster than we can, and a hundred times faster than Mombi can."
"While we are waiting," suggested Tora, who had been carefully threading his needle, "I'll mend your frock, my dear. Have you any more buttons, Snip?"
Snip felt in his pockets and brought out a handful of gold and silver buttons and as Dorothy stood shading her eyes and keeping an anxious lookout for Kabumpo, Tora sewed them neatly in place.
"It must have been mighty queer, growing up all at once," observed the old tailor, biting off his thread and giving the little girl an affectionate pat on the shoulder.
"It was," answered Dorothy, groaning at the recollection. "I can't imagine what happened to me, but then everything's very queer lately."
With her frock neatly buttoned, Dorothy began to feel more like herself. She thanked Tora sweetly and smilingly invited him to tell them something about himself.
"Yes, do," urged Snip, coming to stand beside her.
"Well," sighed the old man, sticking his needle back in his lapel and taking off his specs, "there's not much to tell. I'm a tailor, as you can readily see. How I got to Blankenburg, I don't know, but there I've been for so long that it gives me rheumatism to think of it. But it's all over now. When we reach this marvelous city you two young people speak of, I shall set up a shop and live happily ever afterward."
"What? With those ears?" shouted Humpy, falling up against a tree. "Oh, I don't believe it!"
"Hush," begged Dorothy and, turning apologetically to the tailor, she whispered earnestly: "You really mustn't mind Humpy. You see his head is stuffed with hair and it makes him kind of ridiculous." The tailor chuckled under his breath and Snip giggled outright.
Just at this moment Kabumpo, magnificent in his pearls and velvet robes, swung ponderously into view.
"Dorothy," trumpeted the Elegant Elephant, stopping a good twenty feet from the little group and elevating his trunk haughtily, "what are you doing with those shabby fellows? Don't you realize you're a Princess? A tailor! Great Grump! Do you expect me to associate with a tailor?"
"But gaze upon his ears," cried Humpy, waving his cloak triumphantly at Tora. "They wag, wiggle and fly off by themselves. And we're hunting a king, a witch and a goose. Hurry up, you elegant old thing, we need you in this picture."
"No we don't, we'll go on by ourselves." Snip looked angrily at Kabumpo and, taking Tora's arm, began to walk off.
"Oh wait!" gasped Dorothy, more embarrassed by Kabumpo's rudeness than by the dummy's ridiculousness. "Kabumpo doesn't mean that. He's really awfully jolly when you get to know him better."
"Don't bother, my dear," Tora smiled, a little sadly. Reaching up he took off both his ears and put them quietly into his pocket. "I never listen to unpleasant conversations," explained the old man simply.
"Good-bye," said Snip, bowing rather stiffly to Dorothy. "If you reach the Emerald City before we do, be sure to tell Ozma about her father."
"Now please don't go," begged Dorothy. "Wait! Wait!" In great distress she dashed over to the Elegant Elephant and poured out the whole story of the lost King of Oz and of Mombi's wickedness.
When Tora had so unexpectedly taken off his ears Kabumpo's little eyes had fairly rolled in his head and now, as he listened to Dorothy's strange recital, they began to snap and sparkle with interest. If there was one thing Kabumpo enjoyed, it was being mixed up in a royal adventure. Finding the lost King of Oz would be a very creditable thing, even for an elephant so elegant as himself. It might even gain him an important position at court, thought Kabumpo craftily. And what a choice bit of news to carry home to Pumperdink—that Ozma was not the Queen at all, and that he, Kabumpo the Magnificent, had helped find the real monarch and had been present at the coronation. Already his imagination leaped ahead to this important event.
Concealing, in his pompous and provoking fashion, his real interest and excitement, Kabumpo set Dorothy upon his back and started in a dignified and stately manner toward Tora and Snip.
"I understand you are friends of the lost King of Oz," wheezed Kabumpo grandly, as he came up beside them. "Are you going on to the Emerald City? Care to ride?" he asked graciously. This was as near an apology as Kabumpo ever got.
"Hear! Hear!" spluttered the dummy, who was walking stiffly behind the tailor.
Of course Tora could not do this, as his ears were still in his pocket, but Snip, looking inquiringly up at Dorothy saw her motion earnestly for him to yield. He decided to overlook the elephant's rudeness and gave Kabumpo a signal to lift him up.
"Did she say you were a mutton boy?" asked Kabumpo, as he placed Snip beside the little girl.
"No, a button boy," corrected Dorothy hastily, "from the Kingdom of Kimbaloo, you know."
"Ah yes," grunted Kabumpo condescendingly, "I remember hearing of Kimbaloo—a buttony sort of place across the mountains from Pumperdink."
Snip was about to retort with something short and sassy, when Kabumpo lifted up the tailor and as Tora seemed terribly alarmed by the suddenness of his transit through the air, Snip helped him to settle comfortably instead of talking. He just got Tora firmly seated in time to catch Humpy, whom the Elegant Elephant tossed aloft as carelessly as he would a bale of hay.
"All ready?" boomed Kabumpo importantly. "Well, then here we go." And before anyone could answer he was off, moving swiftly and surely as a battleship through the waving billows of wheat.
"What did you find for lunch?" called Humpy curiously. Snip and Tora hadn't breath to say anything, and Dorothy was too worried about Ozma to want to talk. But Kabumpo, instead of answering, threw up his trunk, sending forth such a volley of shrill bellows that Snip's hair rose on end and the ears in Tora's pocket gave a terrified bounce. Humpy chuckled, as he listened to the shrill trumpeting of the Elegant Elephant. He had thought of a joke!
"Ah, he has eaten a trumpet vine," mused the dummy dreamily, as the noise died away. But it ceased for only a moment, for trumpeting was Kabumpo's way of clearing a path for himself and, determined to reach the capital before Mombi, the witch, he travelled as never before and, clinging to each other and to Kabumpo's harness and robe, the four riders made the best they could of the worst journey they had ever taken.
Humpy Hailed As King
Kabumpo would never have stopped until he reached the Emerald City itself, had it not been for the mountain. Rushing like an express train from a small dim wood, the Elegant Elephant came unexpectedly upon a steep wall of rock. With a snort of surprise he stopped so sharply that everyone in the party went sailing over his head. Humpy, who was lightest, sailed farthest and, landing first, made a splendid cushion for Snip and Dorothy to fall on. Tora, fortunately, plumped into a patch of gooseberry bushes, so that no one was really hurt.
"Didn't I do that well?" asked the dummy, as Dorothy and Snip jumped up. "Falling's my specialty and falling for you, Princess," he rose and made Dorothy an exceedingly shaky bow, "falling for you, is a real pleasure."
"Well I'm kinda glad you did fall first," gasped the little girl, running to help Snip pull Tora out of the bushes.
"Did I understand Dorothy to say your name was Kabumpo?" inquired the dummy, addressing himself blandly to the Elegant Elephant. Kabumpo nodded without taking his eyes from the mass of jagged stone ahead.
"Well, that accounts for the bumpo. I understand perfectly now," continued Humpy conversationally, as he picked up his crown and set it solemnly on his head. "But next time, next time, old rascal!" He wagged his finger playfully at the Elegant Elephant.
"Old rascal! Old rascal!" sputtered Kabumpo, swinging round in a fury. "How dare you talk to me like that, you good for nothing son of a sofa, you hair-brained piece of a night shirt!"
"Well, I may be stuffed with hair, but you're stuffed with hay and I don't see much difference except," Humpy backed rapidly out of Kabumpo's reach, "except that the person who stuffed you didn't finish the job. You're full of wrinkles," he announced judicially.
Kabumpo made a swing at the dummy with his trunk and then, thinking better of it, turned angrily away and, mumbling and wheezing under his breath, began to move majestically toward the rocky barrier. Seeing that no more fun was to be had out of him, Humpy hurried over to the tailor, who was walking unsteadily between Dorothy and Snip. He had put on his ears and was listening attentively to the little girl's remarks about the Elegant Elephant. Dorothy was telling how faithfully Kabumpo had served his master, the Prince of Pumperdink.
"It may be so, it may be so," muttered Tora, gazing after the great beast doubtfully, "but he seems to me a trifle abrupt—er, almost dangerous!"
"But he's very fast," said Dorothy coaxingly, "and if he had not stopped when he did we'd have been thrown upon the rocks."
"That's so," put in Snip, who had rather enjoyed his wild ride upon the elephant's back.
"Well, well, I daresay I am old fashioned," sighed the tailor, settling his specs resignedly, "and if you and Dorothy can stand this mad mode of travel, I'll try not to mind it either."
"Fall on me next time," invited the dummy generously. Humpy's expression as he made this suggestion was so comical that Tora laughed in spite of himself.
"But how are we going to cross the mountain?" put in Snip dismally. "It's too steep for Kabumpo to climb and I don't see any way 'round, do you?"
Dorothy shook her head. "I don't even remember a mountain being here," observed the little girl with a troubled frown. They had joined the Elegant Elephant by this time and, standing in a dejected row, they surveyed the great mass of tumbled rocks—rocks so steep and jagged that even Snip shuddered at the thought of clambering over their perilous peaks.
"I hope you don't expect me to carry you over," sniffed Kabumpo. "Only a bird could cross this. A bird! Great Gollywockers! Look!"
But Dorothy and the others had already seen for themselves. An old woman and a goose were walking calmly through the mountain just as if it did not exist at all—an old woman and a goose! The former was dressed in the simple costume of a Gilliken farmer's wife. In one hand she carried a large basket and with the other she held her stick and a long rope attached to the goose's neck.
"It's Mombi!" cried Dorothy, clutching Snip in terror, for in spite of the disguise, there was no mistaking that wicked old face.
"And Pajuka!" gasped Snip, scarcely daring to breathe. Tora's ears were fluttering like leaves in a gale, and even Kabumpo trembled slightly.
"She must have got her magic powers back," whispered Snip hoarsely, "or how could she walk through a mountain? Oh Dorothy, what shall we do now?"
As it happened, they had time to do nothing, for just then Pajuka looked up and saw the little button boy.
"Snip!" screamed the goose joyfully. Spreading both wings, he flew forward so fast that Mombi had to run to keep up with him. "I thought she had done for you," panted the goose, paying no attention to Mombi's jerks upon the rope. He began to caress Snip with both wing and bill.
Snip forgot his fright for a moment, in his delight at seeing his old friend again and, dropping on his knees, hugged Pajuka for dear life. Dorothy involuntarily drew back from the witch, who was mumbling a long rigamarole about being on her way to the Emerald City with a fine goose for Ozma of Oz.
Humpy, stepping from behind the Elegant Elephant, folded his arms and gazed down benevolently upon the little scene. "Reminds me of the happy endings in the picture game," observed the dummy indulgently to the tired tailor. "I'mforthat bird, and I don't care who knows it," he said.
"Hush!" warned the tailor, looking nervously at Mombi. But at the first sound of Humpy's voice, Pajuka had given a great bounce and, extricating himself from Snip's embrace, came hurtling through the air.
"Master!" shrieked the goose and flapped his wings so violently that the flimsy dummy fell backward over Kabumpo's trunk. With a surly flounce the Elegant Elephant shook him off.
"Monster!" hissed Pajuka, with a wild peck at the elephant's trunk. "How dare you insult his Majesty?" Bowing and weeping alternately he cried shrilly, "The King! At last I have found the King!"
By this time the tailor had got Humpy to his feet, and it is hard to say who was the most astonished of that astonished little group. Mombi dropped her basket with a crash and came over to stare at the green clad figure. Kabumpo, thinking of his late speeches, began to back uncomfortably away.
"But it can't be the King," began Dorothy, catching hold of Snip. "I found Humpy my own self in California and however could he have gotten there?"
"Girl," said the goose sternly, "don't you suppose I know my own Master?"
"And I've seen him before too," murmured the old tailor, half closing his eyes. "Let me think! Let me think!"
"Did you ever see the King yourself?" asked Snip, turning excitedly to Dorothy. The little girl had to acknowledge that she had not, for Mombi had hidden the old monarch away before Dorothy had come to Oz.
"You don't mind my being King, do you Dorothy?" The dummy turned to her coaxingly. "I'd love to be the star in just one picture. Let me be King and you shall be Queen."
"Star! Picture! Queen!" choked Pajuka, gazing from one to the other in bewilderment. "What does this mean? Woman, woman what have you done to the King?"
He turned accusingly to Mombi, but Mombi, brushing him roughly aside, had run up to Humpy and was examining him carefully from all sides. Catching sight of a white tape protruding from the collar of his robe, the old witch jerked him sideways and after one triumphant look at the number on the tape, began to jump up and down like a child on a pogo stick.
"The King!" shrilled Mombi, throwing up her stick. "It is the King of Oz himself! And I am the only one who can restore him to himself and to the throne." She looked sharply at Dorothy, whom she had already recognized, as if daring her to contradict this statement.
"But I don't see how a dummy could be a king," objected Dorothy, still trying to puzzle out the mystery.
"That's because you are only a little girl," explained Pajuka gently. "I suppose you don't see how a goose could be a prime minister either, or how that wicked old woman would dare to turn her King to a stuffed man and his trusted councillor to a goose, or throw an innocent little boy down a well," hissed Pajuka, with an angry glare at Mombi.
"A meddlesome little vagabond," mumbled Mombi, holding her ground stubbornly. She was not going to be frightened out of her reward by anyone now, and stared defiantly at the little company.
"But how did you get out of the well and who are all these people?" puffed Pajuka, looking curiously from Tora to Kabumpo and then letting his eyes rest fondly on the King.
Mombi scarcely listened as Snip told of his fall into Blankenburg, his escape with the tailor and their meeting with Dorothy, Kabumpo and the dummy. She was hurriedly turning over a plan to get Humpy away from his friends. While Pajuka, in his turn, told how he had tried to fly down the well, how he had been caught and tied up by the old witch and forced to accompany her until now, Mombi dropped the rope that was tied to his neck and made a sly move toward the King.
"Your Majesty," whispered Mombi craftily, "may I have a few words with you?"
"Certainly. Certainly!" puffed the dummy King, stepping along pompously at her side. Tora, Snip and Dorothy were so interested in Pajuka's story that they did not notice Mombi's move, but Kabumpo, who had been keeping an astonished eye and ear upon the whole proceeding, stepped noiselessly after the two. Here, reasoned Kabumpo anxiously, was an opportunity to make up for his rude speeches and restore himself to favor with this impossible person who was turning out to be the King.
No sooner had Mombi put a few trees between herself and the others than she grasped Humpy by his hand and began running like the wind.
"We'll hide," grunted the old witch, paying no attention to the dummy's expostulations, "and when they've stopped looking for us we'll go on to the Emerald City and I will restore your Majesty to the throne. But first," panted Mombi, stopping a moment to catch her breath, "you must promise to give me back my magic powers and half of the Kingdom of Oz. Do you promise? You'd better," she added threateningly, giving Humpy a vicious shake.
"But I'm going to the Emerald City with Dorothy," objected the King in dismay. "Let me go, you old ragbag."
"Yes, how dare you shake his Majesty!" thundered an imperious voice and, whirling 'round in a fright, Mombi saw the Elegant Elephant looming up between two trees. He had followed them without a sound and now, snatching Humpy from the clutches of the old witch, placed him carefully upon his back.
With a cry of rage, Mombi tried to get away, but Kabumpo was too quick for her. Seizing the witch in his trunk and shaking her to and fro like a rattle, he ran trumpeting back to the others. They had just discovered Humpy's absence and Pajuka with a hoarse shriek came flying toward the Elegant Elephant.
"She was trying to steal the King!" panted Kabumpo indignantly. "Shall I throw her over the mountain or step on her?"
"Step on her," commanded the dummy, extending two fingers of his right hand as he had seen kings in the movies do time and time again. Mombi gave a terrible screech and Dorothy and Snip looked uneasily at one another.
"The King has spoken," honked Pajuka, settling down gravely beside the dummy, "therefore let the sentence be carried out."
Dorothy closed her eyes and clung to Snip, but just then, the calm voice of the tailor intervened.
"Your Highness," began Tora gravely, "as this woman is the only one in Oz who can restore you to your proper self, do you think this step a wise one?"
The tailor's ears fluttered anxiously as he waited for the King's decision. For an instant Humpy looked doubtfully at Mombi, then with a sigh lowered his fingers. "Perhaps it would be a rash step," he admitted regretfully.
"Well, some steps must be taken," honked Pajuka angrily. "Are we to put up with this treachery forever?"
"No, just until she restores the King," answered Tora mildly.
"Then I shall step on her," promised Kabumpo, giving Mombi another shake.
"That's right," said Dorothy, glad to have the dreadful business delayed. "Mombi must first restore the King."
"I'll not do it without a reward," screamed the witch defiantly. "Do I get a reward or not?"
The others were silent but Humpy, again extending his fingers, announced grandly, "You shall be rewarded as you deserve!" He winked at Pajuka as he said this, but Mombi apparently was satisfied and stopped squirming.
"Well, I can't do it here," she muttered sulkily. "The transformation was made near the Emerald City and the enchantment cannot be broken until we reach the green country."
"Then let's go on to the Emerald City," proposed Dorothy eagerly. Once there, reflected the little girl, Ozma herself could settle the whole troublesome business. Somehow Dorothy could not imagine Oz without the little fairy as its Queen, and while she was glad indeed to have found the lost King, she could not get used to the idea of Humpy on the throne and administering affairs in Oz.
Humpy, himself, was enjoying it all tremendously. He remembered nothing of his past, it is true, but the present was sufficiently interesting and exciting to make up for everything.
"On to the Emerald City!" he commanded, pompously waving his arms.
"I hear and I obey, your Majesty," wheezed Kabumpo, and hardly giving the two children and the old tailor time to climb aboard, he was off, still holding Mombi fast in his trunk.
"But what about the mountain?" asked Snip, as it loomed up suddenly ahead.
"Watch," called Pajuka and while Kabumpo swayed uncertainly before it, he flew straight through the wall of rocks. Like many another mountain when you come right to it, this was no mountain at all—only a shadow mountain.
"No wonder Mombi could walk through," sighed Snip, greatly relieved that the witch had not recovered her magic powers.
Mombi's Magic
The thoughts of the little company, as they sped toward the Emerald City, were many and varied. Mombi, suspended precariously in Kabumpo's trunk, smiled darkly to herself, for Mombi, as usual, had a plan to outwit her enemies. She could not remember changing the King to a dummy at all, and had at first doubted that Humpy really was the King, but when she had read upon his collar the forgotten green magic formula, even Mombi was convinced. All that was now necessary to dispel the enchantment was to reach the Emerald City.
"Once there, I'll show them," the old witch chuckled wickedly to herself, as she thought of what would happen then.
Pajuka, looking at the stuffed King beside him, was wondering sadly whether he and his royal master would ever be quite the same, whether the good old Oz days they had enjoyed together would ever return again. Fluttering his wings, and keeping his balance with difficulty, the poor goose dreamed longingly of the comfortable chairs in the old hunting lodge, of his pipe and his smoking jacket with sixteen pockets.
Snip was trying to puzzle out how the King had ever fallen into California, how Tora had got his strange ears, how Pajuka would look as a man and how Ozma would like giving up the throne to her father.
Tora, holding fast to his precious ears, had closed his eyes and begun to plan a blue suit for Snip and a velvet cloak for Dorothy. He had taken a great fancy to the little girl. "Let the other fellows worry about this king," thought the tailor with a tired sigh.
Dorothy, for her part, was trying to imagine what would happen when they reached the capital. She felt sure Mombi meant some mischief but, comforting herself with the thought of Sir Hokus of Pokes and the other brave inhabitants of the castle, she finally stopped worrying and began to wonder how Humpy would look when he was changed to himself and what would become of her apartment in the palace. It was all so strange and confusing that Dorothy could hardly wait to see how it would turn out, and watched anxiously for the first sight of the green towers and spires of Ozma's palace.
Humpy was too busy holding on to his crown and to Kabumpo to think of anything, but the Elegant Elephant was busily considering the appearance he would make at the King's coronation. "I'll just have that old tailor cut me a white velvet robe," decided Kabumpo importantly. "I'll wear my pearls and a satin bow on my tail and—"
Just then, Snip gave a little scream of delight, for, spreading out suddenly before them like a picture from fairyland itself, was the enchanting Emerald City of Oz. Its lacy turrets and spires sparkled with emeralds, its marble streets glowed with the same precious stones. The air was sweet with roses and honeysuckle and everywhere were flowering parks and tree lined avenues.
Humpy, Pajuka, Snip and the tailor were simply stunned by the magnificence of the capital, but to Dorothy, Mombi and Kabumpo, the Emerald City was an old story. Accustomed to its beauty and familiar with its grandeur, they scarcely gave it a second glance. Many of the town's people, recognizing Dorothy, waved cheerfully as they passed and all too soon for Snip, who could have ridden up and down its enchanted streets all day, the Elegant Elephant charged into the royal park and approached the Palace of Emeralds itself.
"Master," choked the goose, touching Humpy tremulously with his wing, "our castle was never so fine as this. To think that all of this belongs to you!" Pajuka stretched his neck exultantly. "I wonder if there's a pipe anywhere in the castle?" he puffed suddenly.
"You shall have twenty pipes, my good goose!" promised the dummy. "Everybody shall have a pipe!"
Dorothy and Snip giggled a little at this. Then, as Kabumpo stepped upon the broad portico, Pajuka, remembering Mombi's past threats, began to scream hoarsely, "The witch—don't let her go, don't let her go, whatever you do! She'll steal Ozma's magic and destroy us all. Hold on to Mombi!"
Kabumpo had been on the point of dropping the old woman so he could pull the jewelled bell rope, but at Pajuka's warning he tightened his grip.
"Pray alight, Dorothy, and announce his Majesty!" puffed the Elegant Elephant, forgetting that not more than an hour ago he had called the King a piece of a night shirt. Dorothy and Snip slid down together and, both seizing the rope, set it to jingling merrily.
"Won't they be surprised," murmured Dorothy, looking over her shoulder at Kabumpo and his strange passengers. "Won't they be surprised when they see who is here? But why don't they come to the door?"
Why indeed? For the very simple reason, that there was no one to come—not even the cook's boy. For that morning, Jellia Jamb, Ozma's small serving maid, looking from the castle window, had seen her mistress and the little group who were with her in the garden vanish before her eyes. Rushing frantically through the palace, she spread the dire news, and immediately the entire household had set out to find the lost ones—the entire household from the tallest courtier to the tiniest page. Tik Tok might have enlightened them, but the machine man had run down. No one thought to wind him up and even Tik Tok did not know that Ozma and her friends had gone to Morrow.
In puzzled dismay, Dorothy pressed her nose to the diamond panes in the door. Then, seeing that the great hall was empty, she tried the knob. In their excitement the searchers had left the door unlocked and, with a little exclamation of surprise, Dorothy opened it and motioned for Kabumpo to follow with his passengers.
Kabumpo was bitterly disappointed that there was no one to witness his grand entry with the King and, when they reached the throne room itself without encountering anyone, he looked positively crestfallen. "A fine welcome for his Highness!" he grunted irritably. "Where is the court? Where are the attendants? A thing like this would never have happened in Pumperdink!"
"Ha, ha!" croaked Mombi maliciously, but subsided at once when the Elegant Elephant gave her a shake. Pajuka and Tora had alighted with Snip and all were staring about the beautiful room in admiration.
But Kabumpo was still angry. "Is this tailor to be admitted to the presence?" he demanded loftily, fixing his eyes upon Tora's shabby suit. "In Pumperdink such things are not done."
Dorothy was too worried over the strange silence in the castle to bother with Kabumpo's saucy speeches, but the dummy, falling headlong from the Elegant Elephant's back, put his arm affectionately through Tora's.
Humpy waved Kabumpo aside and pulled the old tailor to a seat beside him. Tora shoved his spectacles up on his forehead and looked gravely at the pompous dummy.
"Let him stay by all means," said Humpy condescendingly. "Every King must have his tailor and he's mine. Besides, has anyone else in this room flying ears, I want to know?"
"Well, I prefer my ears on," grunted the Elegant Elephant disdainfully.
"I'm glad they're on you," sniffed Pajuka. He felt unaccountably drawn to the gentle old tailor, but Tora himself was too taken up with his splendid surroundings to mind Kabumpo's remarks. Just then Humpy, catching sight of the glittering emerald throne, let go of the tailor's arm and started running across the room. The others gave little heed, for certainly it was right and fitting for the King to occupy his proper place in the palace.
Mombi, seeing the dummy's move, fairly trembled with excitement. Without being at all aware of it, Humpy was playing directly into her hands and as he sank down upon the throne the witch gave a shriek of triumph. Held fast though she was in Kabumpo's trunk, her arms were still free. Beginning with Snip and going on to Dorothy, Mombi began to count, "One—two—three—four—five—six—seven!"
At seven her finger pointed to Pajuka, whose every feather stood erect with terror. Snatching two buttons from Kabumpo's robe, Mombi popped them into her mouth and shouted the magic formula on the dummy's collar. "202 B E-10 B-4 7," ran the number, but as Mombi said it, it sounded like this, "Two ought to be eaten before seven."
That done, Mombi glared at the King. "I command you to assume your proper form," she screamed.
Well, surely nothing could have been worse than the next happening. With a grinding, crashing suddenness, the palace began to sink, gaining speed as it went. Down, down, down, till the windows and doorways were blotted out with earth and mud and the whole company lost in the choke of utter and awful darkness. Of all the screams in the room, Mombi's was loudest. Never in her darkest imaginings had Mombi anticipated anything like this! What unknown and dreadful magic had she set in motion?