Captain Salt In Oz – Oz 30

 L. Frank Baum

  

  

  

  

 BY RUTH PLUMLY THOMPSON

 Reilly & Lee edition, copyright 1936

  

 CHAPTER 1

 SAIL HO!

 Eight miles east of Pingaree lies the eight-sidedislandofKing Atothe

  Eighth. While not so large as Pingaree, the Octagon Isle is nevertheless

  one of the tidiest and most pleasing of the sea realms that dot the great

  green rolling expanses of theNonesticOcean. And Ato himself is as

  pleasing as his island, enormously fat and jolly with a kind word for

  everyone. In his eight-sided castle he has every modern convenience and

  comfort and some of which even an up-to-date country like our own cannot

  boast. For instance, take Roger, his Royal Read Bird. Roger, besides

  knowing eight languages, can read aloud for hours at a time without growing

  hoarse or weary. So Ato never has to strain his eyes poring over his eight

  hundred huge volumes of adventure and history, or his arms holding a

  newspaper or court document, or his jaw pronouncing the names of kings and

  countries in Ev and Oz and other curious places on the mainland west of his

  own island. And Roger is as handsome as he is handy, his head and bill

  rather like a duck's, his body shaped and colored like a parrot, but much

  larger, while his tail opens out into an enormous fan. This is extremely

  fortunate, for the Octagon Isle is semi-tropical in climate, and on warm,

  sultry days Roger not only reads to his Majesty, but fans him as well. All

  in all, Ato's life is decidedly luxurious and lazy.

 Sixentwo, Chief Chancellor of the realm, and Four'nfour, its treasurer,

  attend to all the business of governing, so that Ato and Roger have little

  to do but enjoy themselves. The Octagon Islanders, one hundred and eighty

  in number, are a sober and industrious lot, rarely giving any trouble.

  Once, it is true, they sailed off and deserted the King entirely, but Ato,

  with Peter, aPhiladelphiaboy, and Samuel Salt, a pirate who landed on the

  island at just the right moment, immediately set out after them, using the

  pirate's stout ship the Crescent Moon, for the purpose.

 By a strange coincidence, Samuel Salt's men had also mutinied and sailed

  away, so that there were two sets of deserters to seek out and discover.

  After a dangerous and lively voyage, the Crescent Moon reached the

  rocky shores of Menankypoo on the Mainland. Here they learned that the

  Octagon Islanders and Samuel Salt's men had been enslaved by Ruggedo, the

  former Gnome King, and marched off to conquer the Emerald City of Oz. How

  Peter and the Pirate, Ato and a poetical Pig outwitted the Gnome King is a

  long and other story. You have probably read it yourself. But ever since

  their hair-raising experiences with Ruggedo and their rescue by Ato, the

  Octagon Islanders have been perfectly satisfied with their own ruler and

  country. In fact, they were so docile and devoted, so fearfully anxious to

  please, Ato often wished they would revolt or sass him a little just to

  relieve the monotony and make life more interesting. To tell the truth,

  after serving as cook, mate and able-bodied seaman on the Crescent

  Moon, Ato found it quite boring to settle down to a humdrum life of a

  monarch ashore. Roger, too, missed the gay and carefree life he had led as

  a pirate and could not even pretend an interest in the books of adventure

  he still dutifully read to his Master. He and Ato now spent most of their

  time on the edge of the Island C4 the King in a comfortable hammock swung

  between two palm trees, Roger on a tall, golden perch set close beside him.

  Whenever the Read Bird paused to yawn or turn a page, Ato would pull

  himself up to a sitting position, raise the telescope he always had with

  him, and gaze long and wistfully out to sea. Many ships passed Ato's

  Island, but never a one in the least resembling the splendid three-masted,

  fast sailing ship belonging to the Pirate.

 "You'll give yourself a fine squint there," warned Roger one morning as Ato

  for about the hundredth time raised his spy glass. "And what is the use of

  it, pray?" inquired Roger grumpily, ruffling the pages of the Book of

  Barons. "Samuel Salt has probably forgotten all about us and gone off by

  himself on a voyage of discovery."

 "No! No! Sammy wouldn't do that," said the King, shaking his head

  positively. "He promised to stop by for us on the very first voyage he made

  as Royal Discoverer of Oz."

 "Ho, one of those seafaring promises!" muttered Roger. "A pirate's promise.

  Humph! His new honors have gone to his head. Quite a jump from pirating to

  exploring. I'll wager a wing he's gone back to buccaneering and forgotten

  us altogether!"

 "Now Roger, how can you say that?" Heaving up his huge bulk with great

  difficulty, Ato looked reproachfully at his Royal Read Bird. "Sammy never

  cared for pirating in the first place," wheezed the King earnestly, "and he

  was so soft-hearted about planking the captives and burning the ships, his

  band sailed off and left him. They only made him Captain because he was

  clever at navigating, and you know perfectly well he spent more time

  looking for flora and fauna than for ships and treasures."

 "Ah, then I suppose some wild Flora or Fauna has him in its clutches,"

  observed Roger sarcastically, "and a likely thing that is, seeing the poor

  Captain weighs but two hundred and twenty pounds and stands six feet in his

  socks."

 "What a tremendous fellow he was," sighed Ato, sinking dreamily back in his

  hammock and half closing his eyes. "I'll never forget how high and handsome

  he looked when Queen Ozma asked him to give up buccaneering and serve her

  instead as Royal Discoverer and Explorer for Oz! And a fitting reward it

  was, too, for capturing Ruggedo and saving the Kingdom. Aha, my lad, THAT

  was a day! And we had our share of the glory, too! Remember how they

  cheered us in the Emerald City of Oz?"

 "Aye, I remember THAT day and a good many other days since," sniffed the

  Read Bird disagreeably. "Six months from that day Samuel Salt was to sail

  into our Harbor. Well, King, it's been six times six months, and nary a

  sail nor a sign of him have we seen."

 "That long?" said Ato, blinking unhappily.

 "That long and longer. Three years, eleven months, twenty-six days and

  twelve hours, to be exact!"

 "Dear, dear and dear! Then something's happened to him," murmured Ato. "He's

  either been shipwrecked, captured or enchanted! I'll never believe Sammy

  would forget us or break his promise. Never!"

 "Well, whatever you believe, the results are the same." Flapping open his

  book, Roger prepared to go on with his reading. "And depend upon it," he

  insisted stubbornly, "we'll never see Samuel Salt again, so you may as well

  put up your telescope and put your mind on something else for a change.

  Maybe it's your cooking that's keeping him away," finished the Read Bird,

  who felt cross and fractious and contrary as a goat.

 "My cooking?" roared Ato, roused to honest anger at last. "I've a notion to

  have you plucked and roasted for that. My cooking, indeed! Show me the

  fellow who can beat up an omelet, a cake, a batch of biscuits, faster than

  I. Who can brown a fowl, broil a steak or toss out a pan of fried potatoes

  to compare with mine? I C4 I, why, I'm surprised at you, Roger!"

 Roger, ruffling his feathers uncomfortably, was rather surprised at himself,

  for the King was speaking the exact truth. A more skillful man with a

  skillet it would be impossible to find in any kingdom. Ever since his

  voyage on the Crescent Moon, cooking had been Ato's chief pleasure and

  pastime. The castle chef, though he heartily disapproved of a King in the

  kitchen, could do nothing to discourage him, so finally stood by in

  grudging envy and admiration as Ato turned out his delectable puddings,

  pies, roasts and sauces.

 Muttering with hurt pride and indignation, his Majesty continued to frown at

  the Read Bird, and realizing he had gone too far, Roger started to read as

  fast as he could from the Book of Barons. As he read on, he could see the

  King growing calmer, and finally, pausing to turn a page, he let his gaze

  rove idly over the harbor. "Anchors and animal crackers! What was that?"

  Stretching up his neck, Roger took another look, then, flinging the Book of

  Barons high into the air, he spread his wings and started out to sea.

 Soothed by the droning voice of the Read Bird, Ato had closed his eyes, and

  the first warning he had of Roger's departure was a terrific thump as the

  Book of Barons landed on his stomach. Leaping out of the hammock as if he

  had been shot, the outraged Monarch looked furiously around for his Read

  Bird. This really was too much. Not satisfied with insulting him, Roger

  must now be bombarding him with books, cocoanuts and what not.

 Shading his eyes with his hand, Ato glared up and down the beach and finally

  out over the rippling blue ocean. At what he saw there the King forgot his

  anger as completely as Roger had forgotten his manners. For swinging

  jauntily into the Octagon Harbor was the Crescent Moon herself! No

  mistaking the high-prowed, deep-waisted, powerful craft of the Pirate. But

  a new and gayer pennant fluttered from the mizzenmast today. Instead of the

  skull and bones, Samuel was flying the green and white banner of Oz, as

  befitted the Royal Discoverer and Explorer of the most famous Fairyland in

  History. "He's here! He's come!" shouted Ato, running wildly up and down.

  "Samuel! SAM-U-EL!" In his delight and excitement, the King forgot the

  Royal dock and began wading out into the bay. Peering around his wheel,

  Sammy saw him coming and broke into a loud, cheerful greeting.

 "Hi, King! Ho, King! How are you, you son of a Lubber? Wait till I ease her

  in, and I'll be ashore quicker than quick." Roger had already reached the

  Crescent Moon and perched upon the Captain's shoulder was chattering

  away at such a rate Samuel could hardly keep his mind on his steering. But

  he was an old hand at such matters, and before Ato had half recovered from

  the shock of seeing him, the shining three-masted vessel was made fast and

  its Master striding exuberantly up the wet planks of the royal dock. "Ahoy!

  Ahoy!" he boomed boisterously. "What a day for a voyage! Is it really my

  old cook and shipmate?"

 "None other!" puffed Ato, seizing both of the former pirate's hands. "But

  what have you done to yourself, Sam-u-el? Where's your sash and scimitar?

  And what's that on your head, may I ask? You don't look natural or

  seaman-like at all."

 "Oh, don't mind these," grinned the Pirate, touching his three-cornered hat

  and satin coat apologetically. "These are my shore togs for impressing the

  natives. Can't look like pirates when we go ashore this voyage, Mates.

  We're explorers and fine gentlemen now, and when we set the flag of Oz on

  lofty mountains and rocky isles, when we bring savage tribes and strange

  races under the beneficent rule of Ozma of Oz, we must look like

  Conquerors. Eh, my lads?"

 "Yes, I sup-pose so!" puffed the King, skipping clumsily to keep up with the

  long strides of Captain Salt. "But I'm sorry this is going to be a dressy

  affair, Sammy. How'm I to cook in a cocked hat and lace collar and swab

  down the deck in velvet pants?"

 "Ho, ho! You'll not have to," exploded the Pirate, giving the tail feathers

  of the Read Bird a sly tweak. "On shipboard we'll dress as we please, for

  the sea is MY country and free as the wind and sun."

 "Well, well, I'm glad to hear you say that. Have you still got my old pirate

  suit and blunderbuss aboard?" inquired the King anxiously.

 "Certain for sure, and a couple of new ones, and WAIT till you see your

  galley all fitted out with copper pots, and provisions enough below to

  carry us anywhere and back. Wait till you cast your eyes on 'em, Lubber!"

 "Don't you call ME a Lubber!" chuckled Ato, giving Samuel a hearty poke in

  the ribs. "I'm as able-bodied a seaman as you, Sammy, and you know it."

 "SIR Samuel, if you please!" roared the former Pirate, striking himself a

  great blow on the chest with his clenched fist. "Sir Samuel Salt, Explorer

  and Discoverer Extraordinary to the Crown of Oz."

 "SoC4oooh! You've been knighted?" breathed Roger, peering round into the

  Captain's face,

 "Ho pass the salt and ring the bell And bend the knee to Sir Sam-u-el!"

 "Sir Samuel Salt! Well, I'll be peppered!" gasped Ato, sinking down on the

  lower step of the palace, which they had reached by this time. "Sir

  Samuel!"

 "Yes, SIR" boasted the Pirate, rubbing his hands together. "But come on,

  step lively, boys. How long'll it take you to pack up and heave your

  dunnage aboard? Musn't keep a Knight of Oz waiting, you know!"

 "Keep you waiting!" Suddenly and determinedly, Ato rose to his feet and

  shook his finger under Sammy's nose. "Keep YOU waiting? Why, we've been

  ready and waiting for this voyage three years, eleven months, twenty-six

  days and twelve hours. Where've you been, you great lazy son of a

  sea-robber?"

 "Four years?" choked the Pirate, falling back in real consternation and

  dismay. "Never! It's never been four years, Mates. Why, I've scarcely had

  time to sort out the shells and specimens we picked up on the last voyage,

  and to fit out the Crescent Moon for the next."

 "Where have you been?" repeated Ato, wagging his finger sternly.

 "Why, home on Elbow Island, of course. Where else should I have been?"

  muttered Samuel, looking distinctly worried and crestfallen.

 "Then you have no clocks or calendars in your cave?" demanded the King

  accusingly. "And what would the Crescent Moon be needing? I thought she

  was about perfect as she was."

 "Ah, but wait till you see her now!" exclaimed Samuel, cheering up

  immediately at mention of his ship. "The Crescent Moon, besides a new

  coat of paint, has self-hoisting sails and a mechanical steering control in

  case we wish to take it easy occasionally. The Red Jinn paid me a visit and

  presented us with these and several other magical contrivances and

  improvements. I'm minded to make this voyage with no crew but ourselves.

  It's cozier so, don't you think?"

 "Yes, but am I still on bird watch and lookout duty?" demanded Roger

  jealously.

 "Aye, aye!" Samuel Salt assured him heartily.

 "I suppose the Red Jinn has supplied you with a mechanical cook in my place

  as well as a mechanical steering wheel," murmured Ato, tugging uneasily at

  the cord around his waist.

 "In your place!" thundered the Pirate. "Why, shiver my timbers, Mate! Only

  over my prone and prostrate body shall another man enter my galley to

  shuffle my rations, sugar my duff or salt my prog!"

 "Hooray, then let's get going!" squealed Roger, bouncing up and down on

  Sammy's shoulder. "I was only saying this very morning that you'd never

  forget your old friends and shipmates or go on a voyage without us!"

 "Huh! So THAT'S what you were saying!" grunted Ato, looking fixedly at the

  Read Bird. "Well, well, let it go. Come along then!"

 "Yes, yes, and hurry," screamed Roger, spreading his wings to fly on ahead.

 "Sixentwo! Sevenanone! Where are you?" panted the King, plunging up the

  steps after Roger two at a time. "Where is everybody? Pack a bag, a chest,

  a couple of trunks. I'm going on a voyage of discovery!"

 "And don't forget the cook book!" bawled Samuel Salt, bounding exuberantly

  after the King.

 CHAPTER 2

 ANCHORS AWEIGH!

 With the help of eighteen serving men, eight courtiers, Sixentwo,

  Sevenanone, and Samuel Salt, who was not above carrying a sea chest or

  hamper, Ato began stowing his belongings on the Crescent Moon. There

  was little court apparel or finery in the King's boxes. Most of it

  consisted of bottles of flavoring extract, spiced sauces, cookbooks, minced

  meats, fruits in jars for pies, numerous frying pans, egg beaters, and

  rolling pins.

 "Are we gypsies, panhandlers, peddlers or what?" panted Samuel Salt as he

  dumped the last load breathlessly on the main deck. "Goosewing my topsails,

  Mate, many's the fish we cleaned with a jackknife and potato we pared with

  a dagger on the last voyage. Mean to say an explorer needs to use all these

  weapons on his pork and beans?"

 Checking off a list as his stuff was placed in the galley, Ato nodded

  determinedly, then, winking good-humoredly at the perspiring Captain,

  ducked into the cabin to don his old sea clothes. Samuel was not long

  following suit, and soon, in short red pants, open shirts and carelessly

  tied head kerchiefs, the two went below to inspect the stores Samuel had

  laid in for the voyage. Roger, having nothing to bring aboard but a few

  books and a bottle of feather oil, was already perched in the crosstrees of

  the fore topgallant mast looking longingly toward the east and waiting

  impatiently for the ship to get under way. But the booming voice of the

  Pirate soon drew him to the lower deck, and from there he swooped down an

  open hatchway to the hold. This huge space, usually reserved by the pirates

  for captives and treasure, had been neatly divided into two sections. In

  one were the tinned, dried and salted meats, the groceries, vegetables and

  extra supplies of rope, tar and sail. In the other section there were

  numerous shelves, many iron cages, aquariums and sea chests.

 "For any strange animals or wild natives we may encounter and wish to bring

  home with us," explained Samuel Salt as Roger looked curiously at the

  cages. "In those chests are the flags of Oz we shall plant here, there and

  everywhere as we sail onward!"

 "And to think a new and mighty Empire may grow from this flag planting,"

  mused Ato, opening one of the sea chests and thoughtfully fingering one of

  Ozma's green and white silken banners. "But surely you don't expect to

  plant all these, Samuel!"

 "Why not?" demanded the Royal Discoverer of Oz with a wave of the scimitar

  he had resumed with his old pirate pants. "The sea is broad and wide and no

  one's to tell us when we may start or sail home again. But Look, Ato, my

  lad C4 these will interest you." Turning from the chests, Samuel pointed

  to a stack of long poles lashed to the side of the ship with leather

  thongs. "Stilts!" grinned the Pirate as Roger and Ato stared at them in

  complete mystification. "Fine for keeping the shins dry when we wade ashore

  and don't feel like lowering the jolly boat. All my own idea." Samuel

  cleared his throat with pardonable pride. "Of course, it takes a bit of

  practice, but we'll try 'em on the first island we come to. Eh, boys?"

 "Well, thank my lucky star for wings!" breathed Roger after a long,

  disapproving look at Samuel's stilts. "Two steps and you'll smash yourself

  to a jellyfish, Ato. Stick to the boats, men. That's MY advice!"

 "Too bad he has no confidence in us!" roared Samuel, giving Ato a resounding

  slap on the back. "Just wait, my saucy bird, and we'll show you how

  stilting is done. And now, gaze upon this corner I've set aside for my

  specimens; for rare marine growths, for seaweed, for curious mollusks and

  other crustacean denizens of the darkest deep." Samuel coughed

  apologetically as he always did when he mentioned his collecting mania, and

  Roger and Ato, exchanging an amused grin, swung about to examine the long

  shelves with iron boxes clamped down to prevent them from shifting with the

  motion of the vessel, huge aquariums fitted into brass holders, and large

  trays bedded with dried moss and sand for Samuel's collection of shells.

 "You might even bring home a mermaid in this," murmured Ato, touching the

  side of an enormous aquarium.

 "No women!" snapped Samuel Salt, growing red in the face, for he did not

  like to be teased about his specimen collecting. "I'll C4 I'll have no

  women or mermaids switching their tails around my ship and turning things

  topsy turvy."

 "Right," agreed Ato, giving his belt a vigorous tug. "Then how about shoving

  off, Sammy? Everything's shipshape, there's a good wind, and the best way

  to begin a voyage is to start."

 "I'm for it!" roared the Captain, swinging hand over hand up the wooden

  ladder. "All hands on deck! Up with your Master's flag, Roger. Cast off the

  mooring lines, Ato, while I make sail, and we'll be out of here in a pig's

  jiffy."

 "Aye! Aye!" croaked Roger, seizing the cord that would send Ato's octagon

  banner flying to the masthead, directly under the flag of Oz. "Goodbye, all

  you lubbers ashore! Goodbye, Sevenanone. Mind you keep the King's Crown

  polished, and don't forget to feed the silver fish."

 "GOODBYE!" called the one hundred and eighty Octagon Islanders drawn up on

  the beach and dock to see his Majesty sail away. "A fine voyage to your

  Highness!"

 "And neglect not to return!" shouted Sixentwo, using his hands as a

  megaphone. "You know there is a Crown Council eight days and eight months

  from yesterday."

 "Crown Council be jigged!" sniffed Ato, leaning far over the rail to wave to

  his cheering subjects. "I'm a cook, an explorer C4 and a bold, bad,

  seafaring man out to collect islands and jungles and jillycomewiggles for

  Samuel's shell box. Crown Council, indeed! Don't care if I never see a

  castle again."

 "Me neither!" squalled Roger, flying up to his post in the foremast. "Seven

  bells and all's well! Buoy off the beam and no land in sight."

 "Unless you look behind you," laughed Samuel, grabbing the wheel with a

  practiced hand and squinting cheerfully up at the sun. "East by southeast

  it'll be this voyage, Mates. There's ice in the North Nonestic, and I've a

  craving for tropical isles and the hidden rivers of some deep and

  mysterious jungle!"

 "Remember Snow Island?" smiled Ato, coming over to stand beside the wheel.

 "Shiver my shins! DO I? No more of that, me lads! But Ho! Isn't this like

  old times?" Stretching up his arms exultingly, Samuel Salt let his hands

  fall heavily on the wheel, and the great ship, lifting with the wind,

  plunged her nose eagerly into the southeast swell.

 "MC4mmm! Like old times, except for the boy," agreed Ato slowly.

 "Aye, and we'll surely miss Peter on this trip," sighed the Captain, shaking

  his head regretfully. "Wonder where the little lubber is now? That's the

  trouble with these real countries and peoples, there's no getting at them

  when you need them most. Well, maybe we'll pick up another hand somewhere

  to serve as cabin boy and keep us lively on the voyage. But take a look at

  my sail controls, Ato. We can hoist, trim and furl by just touching

  different buttons nowadays; set this wheel for any course and just let her

  ride."

 "Splendid!" grunted Ato, rising reluctantly from a coil of rope. "But since

  there are no buttons on my stove, I'd best be thinking about dinner."

 "Tar and tarpaulin, why didn't I have the Red Jinn fix you some?" exclaimed

  the Pirate regretfully. "I'm sorry as a goat, Mate."

 "Ho C4 I'm not," laughed Ato, waddling happily off toward his galley. "That

  would have spoiled everything. What'll it be, Captain, a fried sole, a

  broiled steak, or a roaring huge hot peppery meat pasty?"

 "All of 'em!" yelled the Royal Explorer of Oz, exhaling his breath in a

  mighty blast of anticipation. It seemed to Roger, high in the foremast,

  that the ship gave an extra little skip at its Captain's mighty roar, then,

  settling easily into her usual graceful pace, she ran smoothly before the

  wind.

 CHAPTER 3

 THE FIRE BABY

 Morning found the Crescent Moon forging ahead with a stiff breeze, a

  choppy sea and the last known island far behind her.

 "Ahoy, and this is the life, Mates!" bellowed Samuel Salt, bracing his legs

  against the pitch and roll of the vessel and waving largely to the ship's

  cook, who sat on an overturned bucket mending his second best sea shirt.

  "Anything can happen now!" Lovingly Samuel let his gaze rove over the

  sparkling Nonestic, and Ato, squinting painfully as he pushed his long

  needle in and out, nodded portentously.

 "By the way, Sammy, what are your plans for this flag planting and discovery

  business?" inquired the portly cook somewhat later. Having finished his

  mending, he had dragged a canvas chair and a pot of potatoes aft by the

  wheel. "Do you look for resistance and rebellion when we start taking

  possession of this land and that land for the crown of Oz?"

 "No, no, nothing like that," mused Samuel, removing his pipe and blowing a

  cloud of smoke into the rigging. "Everything's to be polite and peaceable

  this voyage. No guns, knives or scimitars. Queen Ozma particularly does not

  want any country taken by force or against its will."

 "And suppose they object to being taken at all?" said Ato, beginning to pare

  a fat potato. "What then?"

 "Well, then C4 er, then C4" Samuel rubbed his chin reflectively, "we'll

  try persuasion, my lad. We'll explain all the advantages of coming under

  the flag and protection of a powerful country like Oz. That ought to get

  them, don't you think?"

 "Yes, if they don't get us first," observed Ato, popping a potato dubiously

  into the pot. "Suppose while we stand there waving flags and persuading,

  some of these wild fellows have at us with spears, clubs and poison

  arrows?"

 "Well, that would be extremely unfortunate," admitted Samuel, glancing

  soberly at the compass, "and in that caseFF20C4"

 "I hope you will remember you were once a pirate and act accordingly," Ato

  blew out his cheeks sternly as he spoke. "The one trouble with you, Sammy,

  is that you take too long to get mad. So I shall go ashore armed as usual

  with my kitchen knife and blunderbuss. I don't intend to be sliced into

  sandwiches while you're talking through your three-cornered hat and waving

  flags at a lot of ignorant savages. And I'll have Roger carry the books

  ashore, too."

 "No, ho!" roared the Captain of the Crescent Moon, giving his knee a

  great slap. "Just like old times, Ato. Rough, bluff and relentless, Mates,

  remember?"

 "Aye, and I should say I do. And I remember Roger had to drop a good many

  books on your head before you got mad enough to fight. What makes you so

  calm and peaceable, Sammy? A big born fighting man like yourself."

 "Sea life, I reckon," answered the former Pirate, extending his brawny arms

  in a huge yawn. "The sea's so much bigger than a man, Mate C4 it rather

  makes him realize how small and unimportant he really is. But don't fret,

  Cook dear, no one shall tread on your toes this voyage. But avast there C4

  it grows warmer, and the air smells a bit thunderish. Had you noticed?"

 "FF20'Hoy, 'hoy! Deck ahoy!" bawled a shrill voice from above. "Island

  astern." Both Samuel and Ato stared up in amazement, for Roger was supposed

  to be resting in the cabin. But the Read Bird, after snatching an hour's

  nap, had slipped out an open port and unnoticed taken his position in the

  foremast. The Read Bird did not trust Ato, who was supposed to be on watch.

  Besides, he wanted to be the first to report a new island to the Captain.

 "Looks like a mountain," mumbled Ato, setting down his potatoes and waddling

  over to the rail. "Heave to, Skipper, here's our first discovery."

 "Now how in sixes did that get by me?" muttered Samuel Salt, hurrying to

  shorten sail for the zigzag course, back and in, he would have to take to

  reach the island at all. It showed plainly enough now, a rugged gray and

  purple mass of rock with apparently no vegetation or dwellings of any kind.

  As the Crescent Moon drew nearer, the sea became smooth and oily and

  the air sulphurous and hot.

 "Think likely this is an island we might well pass by," murmured Ato,

  peering critically through his telescope. "Positively deserted so far as I

  can see C4 but there might be valuable minerals in those rocks."

 "Don't doubt it!" Samuel Salt curved himself all the way round the wheel in

  his interest. Mechanical devices were well enough for the open sea, but

  Samuel preferred to handle his own ship on occasions like this. As there

  was no harbor or safe place to put in, he decided to anchor offshore and

  land in the jolly boat. The anchor had just gone clanking and rattling over

  the side when a horrid hiss and boom from the center of the island made all

  hands look up in alarm.

 "K-kkk cannons!" quavered Ato, dropping his bread knife with a clatter.

  "Stand by to man the guns!"

 But Samuel Salt, instead of heeding the cook's warning, began to sniff the

  air. "Volcano, Mates," announced the Captain calmly. "And in that case we

  may be a bit close for comfort. Still, I've always wanted to observe a

  volcano in action. I've a theory there may be living creatures in the

  center."

 "Living creatures in the center!" raged Ato, tearing off his white apron and

  dashing it on the deck. "How long will we be living if that fire pot starts

  boiling? We mayn't be killed, being of magic birth, but we can be jolly

  well singed, fried, boiled and melted. And after that, who'd care to be

  alive? Quick, Roger, heave in on that chain! Anchors aweigh!"

 While Samuel stood in rapt contemplation of the volcano and Ato began

  frantically winding up the anchor, a long tongue of flame leaped out of the

  crater, and a great jet of bubbling lava shot clear over the Crescent

  Moon. This occurrence soon brought Samuel out of his reverie, and

  snapping into action and forgetting all about his mechanical devices, he

  began working like a madman to get the ship in motion, tugging at the

  sheets, throwing his whole weight against the halyards till the ship, with

  quivering sail, sped away like a frightened bird, the hot winds from the

  volcano whistling and rattling through her rigging.

 "Where's Roger?" yelled Ato, staggering across the deck with two buckets of

  water. "Oh, woe! Is he a Read Bird or a just plain Goose? Look yonder,

  Sammy, he's flown ashore." Outlined against the sky in a sudden flare from

  the volcano, they could see Roger poised over the center of the smoking

  island. In his claw was a large rippling banner of Oz, and as they looked

  he lifted the banner high above his head and flung it straight into the

  center of the boiling crater.

 "We hereby take complete and absolute possession of this island and declare

  all its inhabitants lawful subjects of her Majesty, Queen Ozma of Oz!"

  screamed Roger hysterically.

 "Well, hurray and three cheers for a real Explorer!" shouted Samuel Salt.

  "He's done it all by himself, the only man among us who remembered his duty

  under fire. There's a bird for you, Mates. Not even a volcano can turn him

  from his duty. All we thought of was safety. Pah!" Rubbing the back of his

  hand across his eyes, which were full of smoke, Samuel looked glumly across

  at his cook.

 "Now, now, don't be too hard on yourself," puffed the King, setting down the

  fire buckets. "A Captain must think of his ship, even if he is an Explorer.

  Besides, having wings gives Roger an advantage of us. Still and all, it was

  a brave and timely act." Ato's further remarks were drowned out in a second

  tremendous explosion. Sky and sea turned red, whole flaming boulders shot

  above the ship's spars, while great sullen waves of lava boiled over the

  crater's edge and rolled smoking and hissing into the sea.

 "Missed us again," panted Samuel Salt, hanging desperately to his wheel as

  the Crescent Moon plunged and pitched in the angry sea. "Wonder what

  started that?"

 "The Oz flag, probably," gasped Ato, feeling around in the dense smoke for

  his fire buckets. "Hope Roger got off safely. Where is that fool bird? Ho,

  Sammy! Hi, Sammy! Quick, they've hit us amidships."

 Hastily setting his mechanical steering gear, the former Pirate rushed

  forward to where a glowing lump of lava was burning its way slowly but

  surely through the deck.

 "Fire! Fire!" shrilled Roger, who had dropped down on the rail unnoticed in

  the smoke and confusion. "Water, Ato! Water, you old Slowpoke!"

 "Avast," puffed Samuel Salt, staring down in astonishment at the glowing

  lump at his feet. "It's alive, Mates, and lively as a grig. It's a FIRE

  baby, that's what! HAH! Didn't I just say there was life on a volcano?

  Well, this proves it, and I'm taking this young one along for proof."

 "Now stop talking like a book and act like a seaman," choked Ato, in his

  agitation tripping over a rope but still managing to keep his hold on the

  water buckets. "Fire baby or not, can't you see it's burning a hole in the

  deck, you seventh son of a seagoing Jackass? Here, put it out! Dash this

  water over it before it burns up the whole ship!"

 "Avast! Avast and belay!" roared Samuel Salt in a terrible voice as Ato

  raised his bucket. "I'm still Captain here. Do you wish to destroy a rare

  specimen of volcanic life? Fetch a shovel from the hold, Roger. A shovel, I

  said, and don't stand there dithering."

 "Aye aye, sir!" sputtered the Read Bird, half falling and half flying down

  the companionway. Now a bird is a quick and handy fellow about a ship, and

  in half the time it would have taken a seaman, Roger was back with a

  long-handled shovel. Snatching the shovel, which had often used on former

  treasure hunts, Samuel scooped up the bawling fire baby and started on a

  run for the galley.

 "It's turning black, it's turning black," wailed the disconsolate collector,

  crooning to the ugly infant as he ran along as if he were its own mother.

  "Aye, aye C4 it's going out!"

 "And a good thing, too," panted Ato, who was close behind him. "What in

  tarry barrels are you fixing to do with it, Sammy?"

 Roger, sensible bird that he was, stayed long enough to douse the two

  buckets of water on the smoking deck, then he too made a bee line for the

  galley. He was just in time to see Samuel lift the lid of the range and

  slide the baby down on top of the hot coals. No sooner had the squat infant

  touched the glowing fire than it stopped yelling at once and began to purr

  and sing like a teakettle set on to boil. "Well, I'll be swizzled!" gulped

  Ato, and snatching a wet dish towel from a rack, he wound it round and

  round his aching head. "Whatever made you think of that?"

 "It's my scientific mind," the Pirate told them blandly. "The proper place

  for any infant that size is bed, and I naturally figured that a fire baby

  belonged in a fire bed, and a bed of hot coals was the nearest to it, so

  here it is!" Winking solemnly at Roger, who was regarding the little

  Lavaland Islander with fear and loathing, Samuel picked up the poker and

  gave the baby an affectionate poke. "It'll do fine here," he predicted

  happily, "and prove beyond a quibble that volcanoes are inhabited."

 "It'll do nothing of the sort!" exploded Ato, bringing his fat fist down

  with a resounding thump on the drainboard. "You may be Captain of the ship,

  Sammy, but I'm the boss of this galley, and that fire baby will have to go.

  GO! Do you understand? How'm I to cook with the ugly little monster lolling

  all over the fire bed and like as not falling into the soup when my back is

  turned?"

 "Hark!" interrupted Roger. "More trouble! Something's up, Master Salt, and

  it's not an eruption, either." And Samuel had to agree with him as groans,

  moans, shrieks and hisses came whistling after the flying ship.

 "Ah, that'll be the rest of them!" exulted the Royal Discoverer, pounding

  out on deck. "Hah! It's the Lavaland Islanders themselves. Ho C4 this WILL

  be interesting!"

 "Well, just invite them over, and we'll all burn up happily together,"

  suggested Ato bitterly.

 Hanging over the taffrail, Samuel paid no attention to the King's sarcastic

  suggestion. Indeed, he was much too interested, for showing just above the

  flaming circle of the volcano's crater was a row of immense and

  thunderous-looking natives. They were of transparent rock-like structure

  and burned and glowed from the molten lava that coursed through their

  veins. With upraised arms and furious faces, they were yelling over and

  over some strange and indistinguishable threats and phrases. One, shaking

  the blackened stick of the Oz flag, danced and screamed louder than all the

  rest put together. "They do not wish to become subjects of Oz, I take it,"

  sighed Samuel, undecided whether to sail back and argue the matter or sail

  away and save his ship from possible destruction.

 "That's not it! That's not it!" cried Roger, flapping his wings

  triumphantly. "I know what's the matter. They want that baby back. You're

  probably making off with the Crown Prince of the Volcano. See that woman

  yelling louder than the others and holding out both arms? Well, look, she

  has a crown on her head and is likely the Queen. She wants her baby back."

 "And she should have it, too," stated Ato, blinking his eyes at the

  frightful racket the Lavaland Islanders were making. "You can't steal

  people's children like this, Sammy, unless you're going back to

  buccaneering. It's just plain piracy."

 "She threw it at us, didn't she?" muttered the Captain, who was unwilling to

  part with so valuable a specimen.

 "It probably blew out of its cradle when the volcano erupted. Give it back

  to her, Sammy," begged Ato, who was determined to get rid of the terrible

  infant at any cost. "After all, she's its mother."

 "But do you expect me to sail back there and endanger all of our lives?"

  Samuel jerked his head angrily. "And how else can it be done?"

 "Er, er, let Roger carry it back in that old wire basket we use for clams,"

  proposed the cook eagerly.

 "Not on your life," protested Roger in a surly voice. "The basket would grow

  red hot and burn my bill. Besides, I'm no stork. Tell you what we could do,

  though, and we'd better be quick before they start throwing things."

 "What?" inquired the Captain, gazing uneasily at the infuriated Islanders.

 "Why, simply shoot it back," Roger said calmly. "Stuff it in the port cannon

  and blaze away. You never miss your mark, Master Salt, and if you can't

  shoot that baby back into its mother's arms, I'll walk on my wings and be

  done with it."

 "Why, Roger, how clever! The very thing!" rejoiced Ato. "I'll go fetch it

  with the fire tongs, and you'll have to hurry, Sammy, or we'll be out of

  range."

 "But it might injure the young one," objected the Captain of the Crescent

  Moon, shifting his feet uncomfortably.

 "Nonsense. It'll be just like a ride in a baby carriage for that little

  rascal. Prime your gun, Sammy, while I get the child."

 By this time the clamor from the Island had become so alarming that even

  Samuel realized something would have to be decided. So, somewhat mollified

  by Roger's compliment on his aim, he made ready to fire the port cannon.

  The baby, hissing lustily, was brought without accident from the galley.

  Ato held it gingerly before him, using the fire tongs, Roger following

  along to hold a lighted candle under the little fellow to keep him from

  going out before he was shot. The baby fitted nicely into the cannon's

  mouth and stopped crying instantly. At the last moment Samuel almost lost

  his courage, but urged on to action by both Ato and Roger, he carefully

  made his calculations, and then shutting both eyes, pulled the cord that

  set off the gun. The terrible explosion shocked the Lavalanders into

  silence, and almost afraid to look, Samuel opened his eyes.

 "Yo, ho, ho! Three cheers for the Skipper!" squealed Ato, snatching the

  towel from his head and waving it like a banner. "The neatest shot you ever

  made, Mate, and a lucky shot, too." The baby and the cannonball, which

  would have shattered a less durable lady, struck the Lava Queen amidships.

  Dropping the cannonball carelessly into the crater, the giantess clasped

  her child in her arms, smiling and screaming her thanks across the tumbling

  waters.

 "Well, was I right or was I right?" chuckled Roger, teetering backward and

  forward on the rail and preening his feathers self-consciously. "And I've

  another idea just as good in case you should be interested."

 "Oh, keep it till tomorrow," grumbled Samuel Salt, who felt terribly

  depressed at the loss of his rare specimen.

 "But tomorrow will be too late," persisted Roger, settling on the Captain's

  shoulder. "Now, while these savages are in a good humor, let me fly over

  and drop another Oz flag on the Island. Maybe this time they'll let it

  stand, and once it flies over the crater the Island is Ozma's."

 "By the tooth of a harpooned whale, you're right! I'm forgetting my duty to

  Oz," breathed Samuel, straightening up purposefully. "But our kind of flag

  won't stand the climate yonder."

 The Read Bird, however, had thought even of that. Taking a sheet of iron

  from the hold, the resourceful fellow stopped in the galley long enough to

  burn in the word Oz with the red hot poker. Then, thrusting the poker

  itself through two slits in his iron banner, he flew jauntily back to the

  Island. "Ahoy, and there's a standard bearer for you!" Rubbing his hands

  together, Samuel strode to the rail. "Bless my buttons, the boy deserves a

  medal for this, and shall have one, too."

 This time the Lavaland Islanders watched Roger's approach with quiet

  interest, and as he hovered uncertainly over their heads held up their

  hands for the iron flag. But Roger, made daring by their friendliness,

  swooped down suddenly to the crater's edge, and jamming his banner between

  two smoking boulders, soared aloft. "Lavaland Islanders!" screamed the Read

  Bird hoarsely. "You are now under the protection and rule of Queen Ozma of

  Oz. Lavaland Islanders, you are hereby abjured to keep the peace and the

  law and LAV one another!" His voice cracked from fright and excitement, but

  finishing triumphantly, he spread his wings and skimmed back to the

  Crescent Moon.

 "Hung wung wah HEEE!" yelled the Islanders all together, nodding their heads

  and waving their arms cheerfully. "Hung wung wah HEEE!"

 CHAPTER 4

 SAMUEL'S FIRST SPECIMEN

 "What do you make of that?" puffed Samuel Salt as Roger dropped breathlessly

  down on his shoulder. "Well, `Hung wung wah HEEE!' it is. Let's give them a

  cheer for luck." Lifting his great voice, the Royal Discoverer for Oz,

  helped out by his two shipmates, sent the weird call booming back across

  the water.

 An answering call came from the Island, and then, with a hiss and thud, a

  small glowing object fell on the deck. Fortunately, the fire tongs were

  still handy, and picking up the offending object before it could do any

  damage, Ato marched sternly off to the galley. Stopping long enough for

  another wave to the island, which was growing smaller and smaller as the

  Crescent Moon sped away, Samuel hastened after his cook, jotting down

  hurried notes in his journal as to latitude and longitude as he ran along.

 "There's something written on this piece of lava," announced Ato, who had

  dropped the smoking souvenir from Lavaland on the stove. Peering over his

  shoulder, Samuel could see queer raised symbols and signs on the sulphurous

  surface of the rock.

 "There's something crawling on it, too," volunteered Roger, who was perched

  on the towel rack above the stove and had a better view, "a golden frog or

  a lizard."

 "Merciful mustard! What next?" groaned Ato.

 "Why, this C4 thisFF20C4" Samuel's voice quivered with excitement and

  disbelief, "this, Mates, is as fine a specimen of a Preoztoric Monster as a

  scientist could hope for; a real, live salamander, a fire lizard, straight

  from the burning depths of yonder crater. Stars! Tar and Tarrybarrels! This

  is even better than the baby and will prove my point just as well."

 "Does it have to live on my stove?" asked Ato ominously as the Salamander

  slid merrily backward and forward over the red-hot plates of the range.

 "Home on the range!" snickered Roger, winking at the Pirate.

 "Just till I can fix up a hotbox for it," apologized Samuel, "but don't

  fret, old Toff, it doesn't bite, and if it falls on the floor, all you have

  to do is scoop it up and put it back before it goes out."

 "Not only cook, mate and swab, but now I'm nursemaid to a fire lizard." Ato

  shuddered, and reaching for his tall cook's cap, jammed it down hard on his

  shiny bald head.

 "You can keep it in an iron pot while you cook," suggested Roger

  practically, "and after all, King dear, it's the only Salamander in

  captivity. Here, Sally, here Sal C4 this way, my little crater critter."

  Tilting the pot on the back of the stove, Roger was delighted to find the

  Salamander quite willing to answer to her new name. As she slid

  adventurously into the small cooking vessel, the Read Bird quickly righted

  the pot and clapped on the cover. "There," he exclaimed with a satisfied

  nod at his Master, "how's that?"

 "Well, I suppose I'll have to put up with it," sighed Ato resignedly. "But

  in some ways, pirating was easier than discovering, Sammy. At least we

  never kept the captives on the stove. And NOWFF20C4" Ato waved his arms

  determinedly "C4FF20clear out, both of you. It's three bells and time to

  stir up the food. And just take that pesky rock along with you. I've meat

  to broil!"

 "When this cools, maybe I'll be able to figure out the language," exulted

  Samuel, removing the offending piece of lava with a cake turner. "All in

  all, a most interesting and profitable day, eh Roger? An island, a visit

  from a fire baby, and a real live Preoztoric monster."

 "Not bad," agreed the Read Bird, transferring himself to the Captain's

  shoulder. Depositing the piece of lava on an iron hatchway to cool, Samuel

  strode happily along the deck, stopping to light the red lamps on the port

  and the green lights on the starboard. Roger himself had just hung a white

  light in the rigging when a lusty call from the galley sent him flying off

  to help Ato serve the dinner. "What could be cozier than a life at sea?" he

  reflected, winging jauntily into the main cabin with a dish of roast

  potatoes. Ato puffed cheerfully behind, bearing a huge tray. On the tray a

  steaming tureen of soup, a pot of coffee, seven dishes of vegetables and

  two of smoking meats sent up tantalizing whiffs and fragrances. Later, when

  the Read Bird brought in the pudding, he and Sammy soberly agreed it was

  the tastiest feast Ato had served on the voyage.

 The main cabin of the Crescent Moon, with its red leather couches under

  the ports, its easy chairs and tables clamped to the floor to keep them

  from shifting, with its ship's clock and ship's lanterns, was a cheery

  place to be when the day's work was ended. There was a huge fireplace for

  foggy evenings, and every visible space on the wall was covered with

  pictures of pirate ships, ancient sailing vessels, and rough maps and

  charts of strange and curious islands. While Samuel and Ato sat at their

  ease to finish off the pudding, Roger took his upon the wing, darting in

  and out between bites to assure himself that all was well on deck. There

  was a tiny crescent moon sliding down the sky, and the slap of waves

  against the side of the ship and the wind creaking in the cordage made as

  pleasant a tune as the heart of a seaman could wish for.

 "Now what could be better than this?" said Samuel Salt, exhaling a cloud of

  smoke from his pipe and stretching his legs luxuriously under the long

  table. "A tidy ship, a good wind, and the whole wide sea to sail on."

 "Suits me!" grinned Ato, scraping up the last of the hard sauce and settling

  back with a grunt of sheer content. "Did you mark up our volcano on the

  chart, Sammy, and what are we calling it, Mates? An island must have a

  name, you know."

 "I know." Samuel blew another cloud of smoke upward and cleared his throat.

  "If it's agreeable to all hands and Roger, I'd like to call it Salamander

  Island after Sally."

 "Why not? There's a Sally in our galley and a real nice gal is Sally,"

  warbled Roger, settling on the back of Samuel's chair and wagging his head

  in time to the music.

 "Sing like a bird, don't ye?" muttered Samuel, striding over to the map of

  Oz and surrounding countries and oceans that covered the west wall.

 "I AM a bird," screamed Roger, fluttering up to his shoulder. "FF20'Bout

  here she would lie, Master Salt, sixty leagues from Octagon Island."

 As Roger talked on, making numerous suggestions, the Captain of the

  Crescent Moon drew with red chalk a small but effective picture of

  Salamander Island showing the volcano in action and the Lavaland Islanders

  grouped around the crater's top. "Taken this day without a shot or the loss

  of a single man," printed Samuel in neat letters under his sketch.

 "Don't forget, you shot the baby," twittered Roger, raising a claw

  argumentatively.

 "Oh, we can't put in small details like that," sniffed the Captain, stepping

  back to admire his drawing.

 "Seems odd for us to be discovering and taking possession of islands for a

  country we know so little about," mused Ato, looking thoughtfully at the

  map on the west wall. "Why, we've only been to Oz once ourselves."

 "Yes, but everybody knows about Oz," Samuel said, putting the red chalk back

  in the table drawer. "Our business is with wild new countries that have

  never been seen or heard of. Besides, anyone can see that Oz is

  overpopulated and needs new territories and seaports. And since Ozma is so

  clever at governing and her subjects all so happy and prosperous, the more

  people who come under her rule the better!"

 "Aye! Aye!" agreed Roger, peering with deep interest at the map. Small

  wonder the Read Bird was interested, for Oz is one of the most exciting and

  enchanting countries ever discovered. There are four large Kingdoms in

  Ozma's realm, the Northern Land of the Gillikens, the Eastern Empire of the

  Winkies, the Southern Country of the Quadlings, and the Western domain of

  the Munchkins. Each forms a triangle in the oblong of Oz. The Emerald City,

  which is the capital, is in the exact center where all these triangles

  meet. Each of these Kingdoms has its own ruler, but all four are under the

  sovereign rule and control of Ozma, the small but powerful fairy who lives

  in the Emerald City.

 On all sides, Oz is surrounded by a deadly desert, and beyond the desert lie

  the independent Kingdoms of No-Land, Low Land, Ix, Play, Ev, the Dominions

  of the Gnome King, and many other strange and important Principalities.

  These countries form a narrow rim around the desert, and beyond this rim

  lies the Nonestic Ocean itself, stretching in all directions and to no one

  knows what far and undiscovered shores.20

 Each of the four Kingdoms in Oz shown on Samuel's map was so dotted with

  smaller Kingdoms, cities, towns, villages and the holdings of ancient

  Knights and Barons, there was scarcely room for another castle. With young

  Princes growing up on every hand, Roger could well sympathize with the need

  of Ozma for more territory.

 "Won't the Ozians have too long a way to come before they reach these new

  islands and countries we discover?" inquired the Read Bird after staring at

  the map for some moments in silence.

 "Not a bit of it!" Samuel dismissed Roger's objection with a snap of his

  fingers. "I hear the Wizard of Oz is working on a new fleet of airships

  that will make crossing the desert and Nonestic a real lark and enable new

  settlers to reach these outlying islands in a day or less. So all we have

  to do is to proceed with our discovering. Ozma will attend to the rest.

  This volcanic island may not be as useful as some of the others, but one

  can never tell. How about picking up a few islands for you, Ato, as we ride

  along?" The former pirate dropped his arm affectionately round the

  shoulders of his Royal Cook.

 "No, thanks," grunted Ato, rolling cheerfully to his feet. "One's enough.

  What would I want with any more islands? Why, I'd never get off on a

  voyage. But pick yourself a couple, Sammy, why don't you?"

 "Who, ME?" Samuel Salt shook his head emphatically. "A ship's all I can

  handle, and I wouldn't trade you two buckets of sea water for all the

  islands in the Nonestic. One ship and one crew's enough for me, and since

  you're my crew, you'd better turn inFF20C4 we've had a hard day and

  another one coming. I'll take first watch; Cooky, here, shall have middle;

  and you, Roger, can be the early bird on morning watch."

 "Ho hum! I'm right sleepy at that," admitted Ato, starting to heap up

  plates. "Give me a lift with the dishes, Roger, will you?"

 "Oh, throw 'em overboard," directed Samuel Salt recklessly. "There's plenty

  more in the hold, and I'm agin all extry labor."

 "Hurray!" screamed Roger, seizing the coffee pot and winging merrily through

  an open port.

 "Avast! Avast there! Not my coffee pot!" pleaded Ato, making after the Read

  Bird with surprising speed considering his tonnage. "Stop, you great

  Gossoon! How many times must I tell you I'm boss of the galley?" Catching

  Roger by the leg just as he reached the rail, Ato snatched back his

  precious coffee pot and hugged it protectively to his bosom. "Why, I've

  just got this contraption broken in proper," he panted indignantly. "A

  coffee pot's like a pipe: it's got to be sweetened and seasoned. Heave over

  the plates and cups if you like," he went on, relenting a bit as he noted

  the keen disappointment on Roger's face, "but save the soup tureen. I'll

  wager there's not another that size on the ship, and the Captain must have

  his soup. What a splendid pot of soup THIS would make," murmured Ato,

  looking dreamily down at the sea. "A bit salty, perhaps, but full of

  snapper and porgy and tender young sea shoots. Why, that foam's as near to

  whipping cream as anything I've ever gazed on."

 Tearing himself reluctantly from the appetizing sight, the Royal Cook padded

  off to put the galley in order for the night, while Roger with loud squalls

  of glee dropped the plates and saucers one by one over the side. In this

  way the dishes were soon done, the cabin tidy and shipshape, and by eight

  bells the King and the Read Bird were sleeping soundly and Samuel Salt had

  the ship all to himself. First he made a complete round of all decks,

  glanced at the barometer and compass, and furled the fore and mizzen

  topsails. Then he took the cooled piece of lava down to the hold. The

  strange signs and symbols had hardened, and labeling it carefully with the

  date and name of Salamander Island, Samuel placed it on his shelves for

  further study. Then, returning to the main deck, he set a portable ship's

  lantern on a coil of rope and settled down to fix a hotbox for the

  Salamander.

 Selecting from the material he had brought from the hold an iron box with a

  glass lid, he covered the bottom with sand and pebbles. Knowing salamanders

  require hot water as well as hot air, he placed a tiny, flat pan of water

  in the corner of the box to serve as a swimming pool. A burning glass in

  the daytime and an alcohol lamp under the box at night would supply the

  necessary heat, and setting the whole contrivance on an iron tray in the

  cabin, Samuel went joyfully off to fetch the fire lizard.

 The Salamander was still in the pot on the back of the stove, and giving her

  an experimental poke with his finger, Samuel was astonished to find her

  quite cool to the touch. This was surprising considering she could only

  live in the most intense heat. But without stopping to figure it out, the

  Captain picked her up between thumb and forefinger, carried her to the

  cabin, and popped her into the iron box. He had already lighted the lamp

  under the box so that everything was red-hot and cozy for her. The small

  captive seemed to appreciate her new quarters, wriggling over the hot

  pebbles and sand, then splashing gaily in her swimming pool.

 "Quite a girl," sighed the pirate, resting his elbows on the table and

  gazing happily down at the first prize of the voyage. "You're going to be

  great company for me, Sally." As if she really understood, the lizard gave

  a squeak and tapped loudly on the glass lid with her tail. The pipe almost

  dropped from Samuel's mouth at Sally's strange behavior, and lifting the

  lid he peered inquisitively down at her. Before he had a chance to clap it

  shut, the Salamander hurled herself upward, landing smartly on the bridge

  of the Pirate's nose, from where she slid cleverly into the pipe itself.

  "Well, I'll be scuppered!" gasped the Royal Explorer, looking slightly

  cross-eyed down the bridge of his nose as Sally coiled up comfortably in

  the bowl of the pipe. "The little rascal wants to keep me company, and so

  she shall, bless my boots, so she shall! Why, this is plumb cute and cozy

  and something to write in my journal." Puffing away delightedly, Samuel

  stepped out of the cabin, and all during his watch, the little Salamander

  rested contentedly in his pipe. Sometimes she peered up inquisitively over

  the edge, but mostly she lay quietly on the smoking tobacco, looking with

  calm interest up at the sky and the rippling sails over her head. Not only

  did she keep his pipe from going out, but never had it drawn so well. So

  filled with a vast wonder and content, Samuel strode up and down the deck.

  Not till midnight when he roused Ato could he bear to put Sally back in her

  box, and only then after he had promised her another ride in the morning.

  But when morning came, Samuel had no time to keep his promise, for while

  Ato was cooking breakfast and the Captain himself catching forty winks in

  the cabin, the raucous voice of the Read Bird came whistling down from the

  foremast.

 "Land Ho! Land! More Land. Island tuluward Captain!"

 CHAPTER 5

 PATRIPPANY ISLAND

 "All hands on deck! Come on! Come on!" yelled Samuel Salt, running past

  Ato's galley, dragging on his clothes as he ran. "There's an island

  tuluward, you lubber."

 "Well, 'tain't a flying island, is it?" Ato stuck a very red face out the

  door. "I guess it'll stay there till I turn the bacon, won't it? No cause

  to burn the biscuits just 'cause an island's sighted, is there?" But in

  spite of his pretended indifference, the ship's cook shoved all his pans on

  the back of the stove and hurried out on deck. "Rich and jungly, this one,"

  he observed, resting his arms comfortably on the rail, "and from what I can

  see, a good place to grow bananas and whiskers. Look, Sammy, even the trees

  have beards."

 "Moss," muttered Samuel Salt, striding over to the wheel. "Fly ashore,

  Roger, and see whether there's a good place to put in."

  Twittering with importance and curiosity, the Read Bird flung himself into

  the air. In ten minutes he was back to report a wide river cutting through

  the center of the island from end to end. The foliage was so dense that

  Roger had not been able to discover any signs of habitation, but after

  viewing the mouth of the river through his glasses, the Captain decided to

  take a chance and sail through.

 "Now Sammy, let's not do anything hasty," begged the ship's cook, lifting

  his floury hands in warning, "or try to conquer a country on an empty

  stomach. This may be an important island, so after we eat, let us put on

  our proper clothes and plant the Oz flags with dignity and decorum."

 "Spoken like a King and a seaman," approved Samuel Salt, "and if my eye does

  not deceive me, I'll have the ship in the river as soon as you have the

  coffee in the pot. Then we'll ride in with the tide, put on our discovering

  togs, and proceed with the business of the day." So while Ato returned to

  his galley and the Read Bird to his post in the foremast, Samuel swung the

  Crescent Moon in toward the island. Each felt a slight twinge of

  uneasiness as the ship left the open sea and began to slip rapidly up the

  broad new and unnavigated jungle stream. Vine-covered trees pressed close

  to the banks, and birds and monkeys in the branches kept up an incessant

  screech and chattering. A flock of greedy pelicans flopped comically after

  the ship, and as they penetrated deeper and deeper into the jungle, it

  almost seemed as if they were entering some dim, green land of goblins.

 "A fine target we make for anyone who cares to shoot at us," moaned Ato as

  he waddled backward and forward between the cabin and galley with cups and

  covered dishes. "Ugh!"

 "Yes, I wouldn't be surprised to feel an arrow in my back any minute now,"

  assented Samuel Salt brightly, "though I must say I'd much prefer a fried

  mackerel in my stomach."

 "Come on, then," shuddered Ato, in no wise cheered by Samuel's remarks,

  "breakfast's ready, and we may as well eat before we die."

 "Now never say die!" roared the Royal Explorer of Oz, touching the buttons

  to furl sail and yelling to Roger to let go the anchor. "Never say die. Say

  dee C4 dee-scovery is our aim and purpose, mates. Dee-scovery with a hi

  de di dide di dough!" sang Samuel vociferously to keep up his own

  spirits. Finally, with the ship motionless amidstream, the three shipmates

  sat down to breakfast. Their nerves were tense and their ears cocked for

  signs of approaching natives, but except for the noise of the birds and

  monkeys and the occasional splash of some river creature, there was no

  sound to indicate the ship had been sighted by the islanders.

 "Nobody's home," concluded Samuel, finishing off his third cup of coffee at

  one toss and hurrying off to his cabin. Roger, having only Oz flags and no

  shore togs to bother him, generously offered to clear away the dishes and

  amused himself by throwing scraps and the rest of the biscuits to the

  pelicans. He had just tossed over the last biscuit when Ato appeared in a

  grand satin coat and breeches, long cape, and three-cornered hat. The

  elegance of his apparel was somewhat marred by the breadboard he had belted

  round his middle and the bread knife and blunderbuss he had stuck through

  his sash.

 "Ha, hah!" roared Samuel Salt, giving the breadboard a resounding whack.

  "Something to stay your stomach, EH!" Samuel himself was as stylishly

  attired as the King, his three-cornered hat at a dashing angle. Under his

  arm he had two pairs of tremendously long stilts. "No need for us to get

  all grubby lowering the boat. We'll wade ashore this time," explained

  Samuel as Ato's eyes grew round and questioning. "Easy as walking on

  crutches. Just watch me, mate."

 Now Samuel, it must be confessed, had been practicing stilting on Elbow

  Island, so naturally it came easy to him. First he put his stilts over the

  side, then, vaulting the rail, he seized the tops and settled his feet in

  the crosspieces at one jump and started walking calmly up and down,

  gleefully calling for Ato to follow. It all looked so simple, Ato handed

  the basket of lunch he had packed to Roger and, seizing his stilts, began

  anxiously feeling around for the river bottom. Satisfied that it was solid,

  he climbed boldly up on the rail.

 "That's it! That's it!" applauded Samuel. "Now grab the tops, mate, and

  start coming."

 "Chee tree C4 tee C4 hee!" screeched the monkeys derisively as Ato clung

  precariously to the rail with one hand and maneuvered his stilts with the

  other. By some miracle of balance, the fat King actually managed to mount

  and hold on to his perilous walking sticks. Then, with a long, quivering

  breath, he heaved one forward. He was about to take another step when a

  desperate scream from Roger almost caused him to topple over backwards.

 "FF20'Gators!" croaked the Read Bird, beating his wings together violently.

  "Watch out! for those 'gators."

 "Why bother him with gaiters at a time like this? They look perfectly all

  right to me." Samuel Salt frowned up at Roger.

 "Not his gaiters, river 'gators, alligators, CROCODILES!" wailed Roger,

  beginning to fly in agonized circles. "Crocodiles and WORSE."

 Samuel, eyeing what he had supposed to be a pile of rotten logs on the

  riverbank, saw dozens of the slimy saurians slide into the water and come

  savagely toward them.

 "Back to the ship! Back to the ship!" babbled the Read Bird, clutching Ato's

  collar with a frantic claw. But the King was too frightened to move. The

  sight of the bleary-eyed river monsters made him tremble so violently, his

  stilts twittered and swayed like trees in a hurricane. He could not for the

  life of him take a step in either direction. With a loud cry, Samuel

  started to help him, but a crocodile reached Ato first. Its jaws closed

  with a vicious snap on the King's left stilt, and with a heart-rending

  shriek, Ato plunged into the slimy river.

 "There, there! Now you've done it!" sobbed Roger. "Fed the kindest soul who

  ever served a ship's company to a parcel of crocodiles!" Dropping the Oz

  flags and lunch basket, he made an unsuccessful grab for his Master's arm.

  But even if he had caught it, Ato's great weight would have pulled them

  both under; and now only a circle of bubbles showed where the luckless

  explorer had disappeared. Firing his blunderbuss to frighten off the rest

  of the crocodiles, Samuel, striking left and right with his stilts,

  propelled himself forward while Roger pecked futilely at the monster that

  had felled his Master. But just as Samuel, after boldly driving off the

  dragon-like creature, prepared to dive in and save Ato or perish with him,

  a dripping head appeared above the water.

 "Thank you. Thank you very much!" murmured a mild voice. "I haven't had as

  nice a present as this since I was an itty bitty baby. Now what can I do

  for YOU?" Neither Samuel nor Roger could speak a word, for where the King

  had gone down, a tremendous hippopotamus was coming up, the lunch basket

  hanging carelessly out of a corner of its mouth. For a wild moment, Samuel

  thought his enormous friend and shipmate had been transformed by some

  witchcraft into this ponderous beast. He even imagined he caught an

  expression of Ato's in the monster's moist eye. But this gloomy idea was

  soon dispelled, for, as the creature rose higher out of the water, they

  could see a desperate and bedraggled figure sprawled across its slippery

  back.

 "Ahoy, mate!" choked Samuel, his heart thumping like a triphammer. "Is it

  really you? Are you safe, then?"

 "Safe!" quavered the half-drowned and mud-covered King of the Octagon Isle.

  "SAFE?" He peered dizzily at the churning crocodiles just a boat's length

  away, and his voice cracked and broke. "I never felt safer in my life. What

  am I riding, a whale or an elephant?"

 "A river horse," explained the hippopotamus, looking kindly over her

  shoulder. Then, as the crocodiles began to hiss and roar and come rolling

  toward them, she gave a ferocious bellow and snort. "Away with you! Be off,

  you river scum!" she squealed viciously. "These travelers are MINE. Shoot

  your firestick, Master Long Legs. That will fix them." For a moment, the

  crocodiles held their post, then, as Samuel fired his gun repeatedly, they

  began to slide sullenly across the river to the opposite bank. "Hold fast,

  Master Short Legs, and I'll soon have you ashore," wheezed the

  hippopotamus, speaking out of the corner of her mouth so as not to drop the

  picnic basket.

 "Yes, yes, but what then?" shuddered Ato, trying to get a fingerhold on the

  monster's slippery neck.

 "Why, then, we'll both tell our stories, and after that I'll eat," snorted

  the river horse, paddling joyously toward the bank.

 "You'll EAT!" groaned Ato, ready to roll back into the river. "Oh, my father

  and mother and maiden aunts!"

 "Did you hear that?" Dropping to Samuel's shoulder, Roger whispered

  fiercely. "Quick now, a shot behind the ear before it gets any farther. Are

  you going to do nothing while this ravenous monster carries off my poor

  Master?"

 "Sh-hh!" warned Samuel, holding up his finger. "These creatures do not eat

  meat or men. They're herbivorous, my lad, and this one seems uncommonly

  kind and friendly. But what puzzles meFF20C4" the Royal Explorer looked

  intently into the face of the Read Bird "C4FF20what puzzles me is to find

  this one talking our language. To my knowledge, only animals in Oz, a few

  in Ev, and you on the Octagon Isle have the gift of speech. And I tell you,

  mate, this is a valuable discovery, and a simply splendid specimen of a

  pachydermatous talking aquatic." Whether the last few words in this

  sentence or a stone in the river bottom tripped up the Captain, Roger never

  knew, but without any warning Samuel turned a sudden back-somersault into

  the river, going under as completely as Ato had done. "Ugh-gr-ugh!" he

  gurgled, coming up full of mud and disgust. "How did that happen?"

 "Stilts!" sniffed Roger, whose wings had saved him from going down with

  Samuel. "A splendid way to get ashore, Master Salt, so neat and tidy. And a

  fine Discoverer you look now."

 Sighing deeply, Samuel watched his stilts floating out of reach, then,

  shaking his head violently to get the water out of his eyes, he swam

  thoughtfully after the hippopotamus. As he dragged himself up on the bank,

  a monkey swinging by its tail from the lower branches of a tree snatched

  his three-cornered hat and skittered all the way to the treetop, at which

  all the other monkeys let out shrill hoots of mocking merriment.

 "Ah! The welcoming committee!" sniffled Ato, rolling off the hippopotamus.

  "Well, Sammy, wherever it is, here we are, and a nice mess you've made of

  the landing. Clothes ruined, weapons goneFF20C4" Ato felt his middle

  dejectedly for his bread knife and blunderbuss, then, hitching up the

  breadboard at his waist, looked long and accusingly at the Leader of the

  Expedition.

 "Now you musn't mind a little mud," said the hippopotamus, setting down the

  picnic basket and gazing from one to the other with frank interest and

  curiosity. "Mud is beautiful, and SO healthy."

 "Not for me," frowned Samuel Salt, endeavoring to remove the thick green

  slime from his hair and ears with his damp silk handkerchief. "But I

  suppose we'll dry off in time andFF20C4"

 "Proceed with the business of the day," finished Ato sarcastically as he

  squeezed the water out of his silk pantaloons and coattails. "But I hope

  you don't mind my saying that a seaman should stick to his boats, Samuel.

  If I had not fallen in with this kind and obliging hippopotamus, I'd have

  been a crocodile's lunch by this time."

 "Oh, I'd have got you out somehow," muttered Samuel, smoothing back his hair

  sulkily. "And those stilts really saved your life. Suppose that animal had

  bitten your leg instead of your stilt? By the way, what's the name of this

  island, mate?" Anxious to change the subject, Samuel turned to Ato's

  tremendous rescueress.

 "Mate?" repeated the hippopotamus, wiggling her ears inquiringly. "What may

  that mean?"

 "It is what a seaman calls his crew and his friends," explained Samuel,

  grinning in spite of himself.

 "Seaman? Mate?" mused the hippopotamus in a rapt voice. "How cozy, how

  beautiful." Overcome with emotion, the mighty monster leaned forward and

  lapped up the picnic basket, Oz flags, lunch and everything. "I shall

  remember this as long as I live," she assured them with a gulp as one of

  the flags went sideways down her throat. "Nikobo, Little Daughter of the

  Biggenlittle River People, bids you welcome to Patrippany Island."

 "Little daughter!" exclaimed Ato in a smothered voice. "Ha, ha! Patrippany

  Island. Ho, ho! This is interesting. I knew there was a trip in it

  somewhere. A wet trip for us, eh Samuel?"

 "But what I don't understand," said the Royal Explorer of Oz, briskly

  massaging his beard with his handkerchief, "is how you happen to speak our

  language. Do all the creatures on this Island talk? I don't mean that

  monkey chatter above."

 "No, none of the other creatures speak the language of man," answered Nikobo

  solemnly. "I never knew I could speak it myself till five moons ago last

  Herb Day."

 "Herb Day? Dear, dear and dear! How confusing it all grows," sighed Ato,

  emptying the water out of his hat, which had somehow survived his river

  ducking. "Do you suppose she means Thursday? Roger! ROGER! Keep away from

  those monkeys. Do you wish to lose all your tail feathers?"

 "Oh, it's all very simple." Nikobo rolled her eyes from side to side. "One

  day I eat herbs and that is Herb Day. One day I eat twigs and that is Twig

  Day, and one day I eat grass and that is Grass Day, andFF20C4"

 "And one day you eat lunch baskets and Oz flags, and I suppose that makes it

  Flag Day," chuckled Roger, coming down from a little excursion in the

  treetops. "She's swallowed the Oz flags, Skipper, and if that doesn't make

  her a citizen of Oz, I'll eat my feathers."

 "Go ahead, if it will keep you any quieter," said Samuel Salt, who did not

  want this interesting conversation interrupted by Roger's nonsense. "So you

  only began to speak our language five moons ago last Herb Day? What made

  you do that?"

 "A boy," confided Nikobo with a ponderous wag of her head.

 "Ah, now we're getting somewhere." Feeling in his pocket, Samuel pulled out

  a small notebook and pencil, still damp but usable. "Was it a native boy?"

  he asked eagerly.

 "No, no, certainly NOT." The hippopotamus panted a little at the very idea

  of such a thing. "The Leopard Men speak a strange roaring language I have

  never been able to make head or tail of. Besides, to speak to them would

  not be safe or desirable. The Leopard Men have long tusks and spears

  andFF20C4"

 "Leopard Men!" yelled Ato, flinging both arms round the trunk of a tree.

  "Oh! Oh! and OH! I wish we were safely back at pirating, Sammy. Here we are

  marooned on this miserable monkey island, inhabited by Leopard Men,

  surrounded by crocodiles, and no way of getting back to the ship."

 "You forget me," murmured the hippopotamus. Lumbering over to Ato, she gave

  him a gentle nudge with her moist pink snout. "Nikobo, Little Daughter of

  the Biggenlittle River People, will carry you anywhere you wish to go."

 CHAPTER 6

 A LITTLE WILD MAN

 "Not yet, not yet," protested Samuel Salt as Ato made a clumsy attempt to

  mount the hippopotamus. "Why, we've only just come, mate. We can't go

  without seeing these Leopard Men and this strange boy who speaks our

  language."

 "Oh, CAN'T we?" Drawing in his breath, Ato made a flying leap at Nikobo, and

  this time managing an earhold, pulled himself determinedly up on her moist,

  slippery back. "Goodbye, Samuel," said the King with a firm wave of his

  hand. "If you bring any Leopard Men back to the Crescent Moon, you can

  discover yourself another cook. No Leopard Men. Mind, now!"

 "Oh, you needn't worry about that." The hippopotamus closed one eye and

  smiled knowingly to herself. Thoroughly annoyed by the desertion of Ato and

  the superior grin of the river horse, Samuel snatched a long rapier from

  his belt and glowered belligerently around him.

 "Shiver my timbers! You think I'm not strong enough or smart enough to fight

  these savages? HUWHERE are these Leopard Men?" roared the former Pirate in

  such a reverberating voice the monkeys fled silently to the treetops, and

  even Roger put his head under his wing.

 "Gone, all gone!" explained Nikobo as she started calmly down toward the

  riverbank.

 "You mean there are no Leopard Men on this Island now?" Looking with horror

  and aversion at the crocodile-infested river, Ato began tugging at Nikobo's

  ear. "Not so fast, my good creature! Wait a moment, my buxom lass! Perhaps

  I'll stay with Sammy after all."

 "Well, just as you say." With scarcely a pause in her stride, the

  hippopotamus turned round and waddled amiably back to the strip of sand

  where Samuel Salt stood staring sternly into the jungle beyond.

 "This is a great disappointment to me, mates," sighed the Captain of the

  Crescent Moon, mournfully wringing out the lace ruffles of his cuffs.

  "To have taken a Leopard Man back to the Court of Oz would have been an

  achievement worth the whole voyage."

 "Now there's where we're different," murmured Ato, settling into a more

  comfortable position on the back of the river horse. "I myself would rather

  be disappointed than speared by a savage, and I don't care how many Leopard

  Men I miss seeing. Rather be spared than speared, ha, ha! Tee, HEE, HEE!"

  Ato chuckled from sheer relief.

 "Shall I fly back to the ship for some more Oz flags?" Roger flapped his

  wings inquiringly. "If the Leopard Men are really gone, then Patrippany

  Island is ours without a spear thrown."

 "That's so," mused Samuel Salt, thrusting his rapier back into its sheath

  and beginning to show a little interest in the island itself. "Fly ahead,

  my Hearty."

 "And bring back some ship's biscuit," called Ato. "All this diving and mud

  turtling has left me weak as a fish. And while we're waiting for Roger,

  perhaps Nikobo will tell us a little about these Islanders. Were they

  little or big, black or brown?"

 "Yellow," answered the hippopotamus gravely. "Big and yellow with brown

  spots all over their hides. They had brown hair, mane and eyes, and rough,

  snarling voices. They used neither huts nor shelter, but roamed like the

  animals through the jungle, hunting, fishing and fighting. They had

  hollowed-out logs for use in the water, and last Twig Day every Leopard

  man, woman and child climbed into the long boats and paddled out to sea.

  Shortly afterwardFF20C4" Nikobo's eyes grew round and shiny at the mere

  memory "C4FF20shortly afterward a great hurricane arose and my family and

  I, watching from the mouth of the Biggenlittle River, saw the boats and men

  swept under the waves. Some of the logs floated back to the islands, but

  the Leopard Men and women we never saw again."

 "Not even ONE?" exclaimed Samuel peevishly.

 "Not even one," Nikobo assured him solemnly. "And to tell the truth," the

  hippopotamus flashed a sudden and expansive sigh, "it is much better and

  safer without them. The one problem is the boy, and I've been feeding him

  myself."

 "Oh, yes, the boy who speaks our language," mused Samuel, still lost in

  bitter reflections of the Leopard Men he should never see face to face.

 "What've you been feeding him?" asked Ato suspiciously. "How would a

  hippopotamus know what to feed a boy?"

 "I do the best I can," said Nikobo in a hurt voice. "Every day I collect

  fresh roots, herbs and grasses for him."

 "Roots, herbs, grasses! Merciful Mustard! A boy's being fed on roots, herbs

  and grasses, Sammy. Did you ever hear of anything more ridiculous in your

  life?"

 "No worse than spinach," mumbled Samuel Salt. "But SAY, look hereFF20C4"

  The Royal Explorer of Oz raised his arm imperiously. "What is a small boy

  doing on this island? How'd he get here in the first place, and where is he

  now?"

 "Follow me," directed Nikobo in a dignified voice. "Follow me, and you shall

  know all." As Roger appeared at that moment with the Oz flags and biscuits,

  the little procession immediately got under way, Ato calmly riding behind.

 On her many visits to the strange boy, Nikobo had worn a path through the

  tangled growth of vines and bush. Tenuous trees dropped their branches over

  this path and stretched out their gnarled roots to trip the unwary

  traveler. Several times Roger let out hoarse squeals as a huge snake coiled

  along the limb of a tree thrust out its ugly head. Gaudy flowers from the

  vines that closely entwined every tree filled the air with a damp, sleepy

  fragrance, and Samuel Salt, darting his eyes left and right, held his

  blunderbuss ready for any savage beast that might spring upon them. But the

  jungle creatures, thinking the Leopard Men had returned, slunk further and

  further into the green shadows, and without any mishaps or encounters

  Nikobo brought the explorers to a small clearing in the whispering tangle

  of green. Here they were suddenly confronted by a stoutly built cage, its

  bars constructed of saplings set scarcely an inch apart. On a heap of grass

  in a corner of the cage crouched the lonely figure of a little boy clothed

  in a single leopard skin.

 "Well, goosewing my topsails!" panted Samuel Salt, deceived at first by the

  leopard skin. "A little wild man, a Leopard boy, as I'm a salt-sea sailor!"

 "It's nothing of the kind," Nikobo contradicted him sharply. "Can't you see

  he is white and has teeth as straight as your own instead of tusks? He's

  not like the Leopard Men at all."

 "But who put him in this cage? What's he done, and what's he doing here?"

  Slipping off Nikobo's back, Ato pressed his face close to the bars of the

  strange prison.

 "I am waiting for my people to come and rescue me," stated the boy, rising

  with great dignity from his bed of grass. Folding his arms, he looked

  haughtily out at the explorers. "Who are these men, Nikobo?" he inquired

  sternly. "Why have you brought them here?"

 "Because they seemed friendly and speak your language," puffed the

  hippopotamus, beaming lovingly at her small charge. "Because I thought they

  might break these bars and set you free. They have a hollow log seventy

  times as large as the hollowed logs of the Leopard Men. In this they could

  easily carry you over the waters and back to your own people. I've tried to

  break this miserable hutch dozens of times," explained Nikobo, turning to

  Samuel Salt. "But the saplings are sunk so deep I've been afraid I'd crush

  Tandy as well as the cage if I pushed too hard."

 "Quite likely," said Samuel Salt, rapping the bars with his knuckles. "We'll

  have to fetch an ax from the ship. But who shut you up here, little Lubber,

  and how long have you been a prisoner on this island?"

 "Five months and a half," answered the boy after consulting one of the bars

  in the corner of his cage. "I've made a nick in this bar with my teeth for

  every day I have been here."

 "Well, that's all over now, you poor child, you!" Ato's voice shook with

  indignation as he looked in at the little boy whose every rib showed

  plainly under the skin. In fact, a heap of grass and dried roots in the

  cage made the kind-hearted monarch shudder with distaste and sympathy. "You

  shall come with us and eat like a King," he promised, nodding his head

  cheerfully, "and learn to be an able-bodied seaman to boot." Instead of

  looking grateful or pleased, the boy whom the hippopotamus had called

  "Tandy" merely stood looking between the bars of his cage.

 "Why should I go with you?" he said finally and wearily. "You look wild and

  dangerous to me, and far worse than the Leopard Men. Here at least I have

  Kobo to take care of me, and who knows what further perils and hardships I

  should suffer at sea?"

 "Ho! HO! And how do you like that, my lads?" Roger rocked backward and

  forward on Samuel Salt's shoulder. "The young one speaks truly. If you

  could but see yourselves, my Hearties." Now both Ato and Samuel had

  forgotten their plunge in the river, but with their hair and clothing still

  covered with mud and slime they looked like the veriest rogues and rascals.

  And while Ato regarded himself with embarrassment and discomfiture, Samuel

  took a quick step forward.

 "SO!" roared the great seaman angrily. "So, you don't trust us, eh? Well,

  stay here if you wish and grow up like a monkey. You look like a little

  wild man already."

 "STOP!" Nikobo quivered all over with resentment. "You must not call Tandy a

  wild man."

 "Don't mind." The boy drew the leopard skin around him with quiet dignity.

  "I can bear it. I have borne far worse. I can bear anything. I am a KING

  and the son of a King's son! Tell them to go away, Kobo."

 "Now, now, NOW! This is nothing but nonsense." Ato clapped his hands

  sharply. "However we look, my young squab, you are in good and royal

  company. My mate here, Captain Salt, is Captain of the Crescent Moon,

  Royal Explorer of Oz, and a Knight, besides. I, though at present a ship's

  cook, am King of the Octagon Isle, and Roger here is as Royal a Read Bird

  as ever wagged a bill and wing. If you say you are a King, we will have to

  believe you, though 'tis hardly credible." Ato stared with round eyes at

  the matted hair and dirty body of the little prisoner. "If you say you are

  a King, we must believe you, but in return you must believe us and stop

  all this hoity toity talk and clishmaclatter."

 "He speaks the plain truth." Nikobo pressed her huge snout close to the

  bars. "Even I can detect the signs of royalty in this fat and goodly person

  whom I just this morning helped out of the river. You must go with them,

  Tandy, and they will carry you back to your own Kingdom."

 "But I tell you, I'd rather stay here with YOU," wailed the little boy,

  relaxing a moment from his kingly and overbearing attitude.

 "Roger, fetch the AX." Samuel Salt spoke so loudly and sternly, Nikobo

  lapsed into a shocked silence and Tandy hastily withdrew back into a far

  corner of his cage.

 "Never argue with a seagoing man," whispered Ato, winking solemnly as Roger

  flew off to obey Samuel's order. Having settled the matter in his own mind,

  Samuel turned his back on Tandy and began to examine with deep interest the

  fungus growth on one of the gnarled old trees. "So you really are a King?"

  Leaning against the huge body of Nikobo, Ato folded his hands comfortably

  on his stomach and regarded the boy in the leopard skin earnestly. "Now

  what country do you hail from, and what do they call you at home?"

 "I am Tazander Tazah of Ozamaland," announced the boy proudly, "the land of

  the creeping bird and flying reptile. Ozamaland on the long continent of

  Tarara is my home."

 "OZAMALAND!" shouted Samuel Salt, swinging round like a teetotum. "So there

  really IS such a place. I have always said so, Ato, but no one would

  believe me. Lies to the east of here, doesn't it, sonny, and is twice as

  large as any known land bordering on the Nonestic?" Somewhat impressed to

  find that Samuel Salt knew something of his homeland, the little boy

  nodded. "And do you suppose we could snare one of those creeping birds and

  flying reptiles if we managed to reach Ozamaland?" Grasping the bars of the

  cage, Samuel peered anxiously into the young King's face.

 "Do you suppose you could ever reach Ozamaland?" sighed Tazander, returning

  Samuel's eager look with gloomy aloofness. "Do you know that a ship has

  never touched our shores?"

 "Then the Crescent Moon shall be the first!" cried Samuel Salt, snapping

  his fingers joyfully. "Why, this will be tremendous and the most momentous

  discovery in a thousand years! But how do you happen to be so far from

  Ozamaland yourself?" asked Samuel Salt immediately afterward. "Did you come

  by air or sea?"

 "That I cannot tell." Tazander seated himself soberly on a log before he

  continued. "One night I was sleeping soundly in my tower in the White City,

  next thing I remember I was here in this jungle. The Leopard Men, wild and

  savage as they were, fed me when they remembered on raw fish and chunks of

  hard, bitter bread they made from the roots of the Brima Tree. But I could

  not understand their talk, nor they mine, and till Kobo found me a month

  after my imprisonment I had no one to talk to at all. But she has come

  every day to keep me company and try to set me free, and since the Leopard

  Men were drowned she has fed me, too. See, through this little door."

  Tazander opened a small door in the bars and stuck both hands through.

 "But how did you learn the language?" asked Ato, turning round to gaze up

  into Nikobo's huge face.

 "I don't know," said Nikobo with an excited gulp. "I just started to say

  `Hello!', and instead of saying it in hippopotamy there I was talking a

  strange language which I could understand as well as my own. And in this

  language Tandy answered me, much to my delight and pleasure."

 "Strange, very strange." Ato shook his head in a puzzled manner. "Well, all

  I say is, it was lucky for this small fellow that you happened along, and

  once we have him aboard he'll soon forget all these hardships and

  unpleasant experiences."

 "I'll never forget Kobo," said the young King, backing stiffly away from the

  outstretched arms of Ato.

 "And Kobo'll never forget YOU," sniffed the hippopotamus. "The talk of the

  river people seems dull and stupid since I've talked to Tandy. None of the

  herd really need me, and I don't know what I'm going to do whoo Hoo HOO

  WHOOO!" Rocking from side to side, Nikobo began to sob as if her heart

  would break, so violently in fact that Samuel Salt covered both ears, and

  Ato, alarmed at the enormous grief of the gigantic beast, tried to put his

  arms around her.

 "Here, here!" begged the ship's cook, thumping her hard upon the back.

  Opening the bag of biscuits Roger had brought from the ship, Ato handed two

  to Tandy and began shoving the rest as fast as he could down the vast

  throat of the grief-stricken hippopotamus. After each biscuit, Nikobo

  choked and sobbed to herself, but on the whole they seemed to comfort her,

  and when the Read Bird finally returned with the ax, she watched almost

  cheerfully as Samuel Salt, with well-aimed blows, demolished Tandy's jungle

  cage. As the last side crashed down and without giving Tandy time to argue

  any further, Samuel Salt seized the boy firmly in both arms and set him

  down on the back of the hippopotamus. Then, giving Ato a hand up behind

  him, the Captain of the Crescent Moon sternly led the way to the edge

  of the island. Roger, waving an Oz flag, flew ahead screaming defiantly to

  the monkeys and parrots that infested the island. "WAY, WAY! Way for the

  Royal Discoverer of Oz! Way for the King of the Octagon Isle! Way for

  Nikobo, Little Daughter of the Biggenlittle River People. Way for Tazander

  Tazoo, King and son of a King's son! WAY-ay-ayyy!"

 CHAPTER 7

 STRANGE SPECIMENS FOR SAMUEL SALT

 With no one to challenge their going but the birds and monkeys, the little

  band made its way back to the sandy beach. Tandy, perhaps because he had

  been so long pent up in the silent jungle and because he was by nature a

  naturally sober and solemn little boy, said nothing. Not even the

  Crescent Moon, riding so proudly at her anchor, seemed to arouse any

  interest or enthusiasm in this strange young Ozamalander.

 "Well, here we are!" exclaimed Ato, heartily thankful to be in sight of the

  ship again. "And I hope you'll not mind ferrying us out to the boat,

  Nikobo. Those crocodiles still look hungry, and I've no notion of being

  crocked for the rest of my life."

 "Any time you say," grunted the hippopotamus, squeaking a listless greeting

  to a company of her own relatives who were rolling lazily about in the

  muddy river water.

 "Avast and belay and what's the hurry?" Leaning his ax against a tree,

  Samuel moistened a finger and held it up. "The wind's against us, mate, so

  we'll have to wait for the tide. Not only that, but Roger and I must survey

  the island and dig up some more interesting specimens to take back to the

  ship." After a long and rather quizzical look at Tandy, Samuel turned and

  swung along the beach, the Read Bird flapping joyously behind him.

 "Run up and down a bit," advised Ato, sliding down from Nikobo's back. "Your

  legs must need stretching. Wonder if there's anything to eat around here or

  hereabouts? Aha, those look like oranges, a wild orange grove as I'm a cook

  and a seaman. Come along, young one, and help me gather a few."

 "A King and son of a King's son does not come and go at another's bidding,"

  announced Tandy, stiffly alighting from the hippopotamus.

 "Merciful mothers! What's this?" gasped Ato, blinking his eyes rapidly. "As

  complete a case of ingrowing Royalitis as I've ever had the misfortune to

  encounter. Well, since it's every King for himself, then I'll be leaving

  you, sonny and son of a King's sonny. Watch out for him, Kobo, he's

  probably real important to himself."

 "You should not speak like that," reproved the hippopotamus as Ato

  disappeared into the orange grove. "After all, the big and fat one is

  himself a King."

 "Pooh, King of some potty little island," sniffed Tandy, leaning wearily

  against a palm. "Break me a cocoanut, Kobo, I'm thirsty." With a

  discouraged sigh, Nikobo trod on one of the cocoanuts, cracking it from end

  to end, and then, because she was a generous and kindly creature, she

  cracked several more for Ato when he should return. Sitting back on her

  haunches, she anxiously watched while Tandy downed the cocoanut milk, then,

  stretching out in the sand, fell unconcernedly asleep. Thus Ato found them

  when he emerged from the orange grove an hour later. His elegant explorer's

  cape was knotted to form a sack and bursting full of the small, sweet fruit

  of the wild orange trees.

 "These will make us a fine mess of marmalade when I get back to the ship,"

  panted the perspiring monarch, settling down with his back cozily to

  Nikobo's. "How's young Saucebox?"

 "All right." The hippopotamus nodded in Tandy's direction. "He is so small

  and tired," she murmured worriedly, "and you must know he has been exposed

  in an open cage in the jungle for five long months with only a miserable

  hippopotamus for company."

 "Miserable hippopotamus," snorted Ato indignantly. "You're a very superior

  animal, my girl. I'd consider it an honor to converse with you any day. Did

  you crack these cocoanuts for me?" As Nikobo, trying bashfully to conceal

  her pleasure at Ato's praise, admitted she had, the King took several long,

  satisfying draughts from the shells. "Now don't you worry about that young

  sprout," he advised kindly as Nikobo continued to gaze mournfully at the

  sleeping boy. "We'll make allowances for his High and Mighty Littleness and

  set him down in his own country. That is, if we ever manage to find it,

  though I must say he'll not be much use nor company for us. Ahoy! Here

  comes Sammy. Wonder what he's found?" As a matter of fact, the Royal

  Explorer of Oz looked more like a walking window box than a seaman. Long

  vines hung from his neck and trailed from his pockets. His arms were

  crammed with spiked and prickly plants, and on his head he balanced a

  package of seashells tied up in his shoregoing coat. "What are you trying

  to do, start a conservatory?" roared Ato as Roger helped the Captain set

  his treasures on the ground.

 "Rare and unusual, all of 'em," said Samuel, dropping down beside Ato and

  looking with complete satisfaction at his curious collection.

 "Mind those yellow creepers," warned Nikobo, wiggling her vast snout

  warningly. "Those purple flowered plants in the middle are treacherous,

  too. They are tumbleweeds, Master Long Legs, and 'tis from them Patrippany

  Island gets its name. When the Leopard Men fought, they would fling these

  weeds at one another, and I've seen them falling about for hours, neither

  side being able to advance a step or even stand up."

 "Tumbleweeds!" breathed Samuel ecstatically. "You don't SAY! Why, these

  might come in real handy if we ever get in a tight place. I'll give a few

  to the Wizard of Oz and to the Red Jinn when we get back from this voyage.

  And what about the yellow creepers, mate? Are they fighting plants, too?"

 "The creepers, if uprooted and thrown at an animal or man, will creep

  rapidly after him, catching him no matter how fast he runs and tying him up

  so tight he will not be able to move until the vine withers," explained

  Nikobo solemnly. "I happen to know from an experience I had with one of

  these vines in my early youth."

 "Creeping vines," shivered Ato, moving as far away from Samuel's collection

  as possible. "Just keep them away from me, Sammy. What right have such

  things on a ship?"

 "Oh, they'll be harmless enough when they're potted," answered Samuel

  easily. "And a splendid weapon they'll make for some up-and-coming

  country."

 "Better keep them for ourselves," advised Roger, fluttering down to Samuel's

  shoulder. "Exploring's a dangerous business, if you ask me, Master Salt."

 "Well, you'll have to admit that it's been pretty safe and successful so

  far," said Samuel, clasping his hands behind his head and gazing

  contentedly up at the waving fronds of the palm trees.

 "SAFE!" The ship's cook began to shake and quiver all over. "Ho, ho! Safe?

  Especially sailing round that volcano and going swimming with the

  crocodiles! Safe! You'll be the death of me yet, Sam-u-el. Have you planted

  your Oz flags and told the wild creatures in the jungle about their new

  sovereign?"

 Roger nodded his head importantly. "We've raised Oz flags on the tallest

  trees on the East, South, West and North sides of the Island. I flew across

  and got a bird's eye view while the Captain walked clear 'round. We've

  discovered it's bean-shaped, King dear, the exact shape of a kidney bean

  and a fine, fertile place for settlers and prospectors from Oz."

 "Yes, all they have to do is cut down a million trees, drain the swamps, and

  train the wild beasts in the jungle to be as polite and considerate as

  Nikobo here."

 "Well, what of it? That's their problem." Samuel stretched himself,

  luxuriously snapping each finger to see that it was still working. "And

  now, since our part is done, what do you say to waking this son of a King's

  son and getting aboard the ship? The tide'll run out in a couple of hours

  and carry us along." Tazander had been awake for some time listening to the

  conversation with closed eyes. Now sitting up, he calmly spoke his mind.

 "I'm not going with you," he stated grandly. "I'm going to stay here with

  Kobo till my own people come for me."

 "Hah! Mutiny!" Leaping to his feet, Samuel glared down at the puny youngster

  with real anger and exasperation. "If you think I'm going to leave you on

  this island to be devoured by wild animals when Nikobo's back is turned,

  you don't know your pirates. CLIMB up on that animal. Lively, now!" Samuel

  looked so fierce and threatening that Ato felt rather sorry for the

  stubborn little King, but he was wasting his sympathy.

 "I'm not going," said Tandy, settling more determinedly down into the sand.

  "And no one can make me."

 "Don't say that! Don't say that!" Blubbering with grief at the thought of

  losing her small charge and shivering with anxiety lest he arouse to

  further anger this tall sea captain, Nikobo lumbered to her feet and began

  to whisper eagerly in Tandy's ear. During this short conference Samuel

  gathered up his specimens and Ato his oranges, and when both had finished,

  the hippopotamus edged nervously forward. "I've decided to go with you,"

  she announced in a slightly shaken voice. "If I go, Tandy'll go, so I'll

  just GO!"

 "WHAT?" roared Samuel Salt, dropping his shells and clapping his hand to his

  forehead. "Well, that practically solves everything!" Looking wildly from

  the hippopotamus to the Crescent Moon, Samuel had a dreadful vision of

  Nikobo rolling dangerously from side to side of his cherished vessel.

 "What'll you eat?" demanded Roger, who was ever more practical than polite.

  "How'll we ever feed this enormous lady, Cook dear? Besides, she'll sink

  the ship."

 "I'll be very quiet and stay wherever you put me," murmured Nikobo in a meek

  voice. "I'll go on a diet and eat whatever is left."

 "Well, why couldn't she go?" proposed Ato, who already had formed a great

  liking for Tandy's devoted guardian. "Why couldn't she? Nice, kind,

  motherly creature that she is!"

 "But a hippopotamus needs fresh water and tons of food andFF20C4" Then

  suddenly Samuel brought his hands together with a resounding smack.

 "Have you thought of something?" asked Ato hopefully, shifting his oranges

  from one shoulder to the other.

 "Yes," stated the former Pirate solemnly, "I have." Samuel was secretly

  delighted to have found a way to carry this superb herbivorous specimen

  back to Oz. "I'll build her a raft and tow her along after the ship. We'll

  stop at all the islands we come to for fresh water and grass, and meanwhile

  she'll have to do with salt baths and such food as we have in the hold."

 "Oh, KOBO! Did you hear that?" Springing up with the first signs of life or

  feeling he had yet shown, Tandy flung himself on his huge companion and

  friend. "So you're really going. Then I'll go too."

 "Can't be all bad, if he's as fond of her as all that," whispered Ato in

  Samuel's ear.

 "Not bad, just a pest," wheezed Samuel, reaching for his ax. "Needs a taste

  of the rope, if you ask me." Then, while Nikobo went for a last swim in the

  Biggenlittle River and bade goodbye to her numerous and wondering

  relatives, Samuel felled trees, split wood, and with nails Roger fetched

  from the ship fashioned a splendid, strong raft for their new pet. Round

  the edge he built a sturdy railing to keep Nikobo from sliding off in a

  rough sea. Ato and Roger, taking thought for the evening meal, heaped one

  end of the raft with grass and twigs and all the jungle roots they could

  gather. Without moving or offering to help, Tandy sat watching, and just as

  the sun sank down behind the palms, a strange procession started out for

  the Crescent Moon. Ahead with the keg of nails soared Roger. Then came

  the hippopotamus moving like a small dreadnaught through the water. On her

  back sat Ato, the haughty young King of Ozamaland, and Samuel Salt. Samuel

  rode last, holding in his hand the long cable he had attached to the raft

  and with which he meant to fasten it to the Crescent Moon.

 Following his orders, Nikobo swam close to the side of the ship so Tandy and

  Ato could climb the rope ladder, then she paddled round to the stern where

  Samuel drew his cable through an iron ring in the ship's hull and made the

  raft fast. There was a runway at the back of the raft, and the rails on

  that side let down so that Nikobo had no trouble clambering aboard. By

  pulling a rope with her teeth, she could raise or lower the back of her pen

  and take a swim whenever she felt the need of one. After giving her a bit

  of advice about voyaging and seeing her comfortably settled, Samuel climbed

  the cable and nimbly pulled himself aboard his ship. Roger had already

  stowed their precious specimens in the hold, and rubbing his hands with

  brisk satisfaction the Captain of the Crescent Moon weighed anchor and

  dropped with the tide down the Biggenlittle River to the sea. Then,

  touching the automatic controls, he set his sails to catch the evening

  breeze, adjusted his steering gear for a course east by sou'east and strode

  happily into his cabin. The Salamander chirped cheerfully as he passed her

  hotbox, and after tapping a cheerful greeting on the lid the weary explorer

  stripped off his ruined and muddy shoregoing outfit, took a shower, and

  climbed thankfully back into his old sea clothes. "Where's the pest?" he

  called out as Roger flew past the open port.

 "Well, since he was so small and important," sniffed the Read Bird, waving a

  claw, "I gave him a large cabin to himself. I didn't think you and Ato

  would want him in here."

 "Shiver my timbers, NO." Samuel looked ruefully across at the small berth

  the Philadelphia boy occupied on their last voyage. "He'll never be the

  seaman Peter was, or the company either. He'd better keep out of my way C4

  HAH! C4 or I'll give him a taste of my belt." Snatching up his spyglass

  and looking as stern as a kindhearted pirate well can, Samuel hurried out

  on deck.

 Meanwhile, in the cabin next to the Captain's, Tandy stood regarding himself

  mournfully in the small glass over his sea chest. He, too, had taken a

  shower and at Roger's suggestion had donned one of Peter's old pirate

  suits. "I am a King and the son of a King's son," muttered Tandy, staring

  sadly at the sallow reflection in the mirror. To tell the truth, the suit

  was not in the least becoming to the skinny and sullen young monarch. "I am

  a King and son of a King's son and can bear anything," he repeated

  dismally.

 "Then bear a hand with the dinner," yelled Roger, who had been peeking at

  him through the porthole. "All who eat must work, and under the hatches

  with lubbers!"

 Pretending not to hear, Tandy sat resignedly on the side of his bunk, though

  he really was curious to look around the ship and see what Kobo was doing.

  From the galley came the cheerful rattle of pots and pans and the huge

  voice of Ato singing as he prepared the dinner. Gulls flew in excited

  circles all round the Crescent Moon, calling out their hoarse challenge

  and farewell, and Samuel Salt, leaning on the taffrail, gazed dreamily back

  at Patrippany Island. The Oz flags fluttering from the tall palms gave it

  quite a gay and festive appearance, and in spite of not seeing the Leopard

  Men Samuel felt he had done a good day's discovering.

 "Ahoy below! How you coming?" called Samuel, leaning down to look at Nikobo.

  The hippopotamus wagged her huge head.

 "Fine! Just fine, mate," she wheezed pleasantly.

 "Hah! Good for you!" Samuel's face broke into a broad grin as Kobo

  remembered to call him "Mate." "We'll make an able-bodied seawoman of you

  yet, my lass!"

 CHAPTER 8

 MAXIMS FOR MONARCHS

 When Ato, banging boisterously on an iron frying pan with a wooden spoon,

  summoned all hands to dinner, Samuel and Roger responded with a rush. But

  Tandy remained sitting gloomily on his bunk. "Now what's the matter?"

  demanded Samuel Salt as Roger, sent to call the young voyager, came flying

  back to the table.

 "He says I may serve his dinner in the cabin," snickered Roger, popping a

  biscuit into his mouth and swallowing it whole.

 "Well, don't you do it!" roared the Captain, bringing his fist down with an

  angry thump. "No use to start such nonsense!"

 "But he's so thin and feeble. The poor child's just full of raw roots and

  jungle grass," murmured Ato, beginning to heap a platter with meat and

  vegetables. "Wait till he folds himself round some of these seafarin'

  rations. He'll be a different person."

 "And he'd better be!" rumbled the Captain of the Crescent Moon, pulling

  in his chair. "And if you and Roger want to spoil the little pest, go

  ahead, but he'd better keep out of MY way. HAH!"

 "I could drop the dinner on his head," suggested Roger helpfully as Ato

  handed him an appetizing tray for Tandy. "How would that be?"

 "Utterly reprehensible, and conduct unbecoming in a Royal Read Bird and

  able-bodied seaman," chuckled the ship's cook, shaking his finger at Roger.

  "Why don't you try to help the little beggar and set him a good example?"

 Now Roger, in spite of his sharp tongue, was really a sociable and

  kind-hearted bird, and the sight of Tandy sitting so forlornly on his bunk

  made him regret his teasing speeches. After all, the little fellow was far

  from home and had had a hard time in the jungle. "Here!" he puffed, setting

  down the tray and lighting the lantern. "This'll put feathers on your

  chest, young one, and mind you eat every scrap."

 "Thank you," answered Tandy so drearily that Roger with a shudder of

  distaste fled back to the cheerful company of Samuel and Ato. But later,

  when Samuel had gone below to pot the precious plants from Patrippany

  Island and the ship's cook was leaning over the rail conversing cozily with

  the hippopotamus, Roger flew back to Tandy's cabin resolved to help him if

  he could. With calm satisfaction he noted that Tandy had eaten everything

  on the tray. Lying on his back, the young King of Ozamaland was staring

  solemnly up at the beams over his bunk.

 "Ahoy! And what goes on here?" cried Roger, settling down on the old sea

  chest. "How about a turn on deck, my lad, and a bit of chatter with the

  crew?"

 "It is not seemly for a King and son of a King's son to talk with his

  inferiors," observed Tandy coldly.

 "In-feer-iors!" screeched Roger, forgetting all his good intentions and mad

  enough to nip the youngster's nose right off. "Are you by any chance

  referring to me?"

 "Ozamaland is a great and powerful country, and I am its King," stated

  Tandy, turning his back on the Read Bird. At this, Roger let out another

  screech and then, suddenly remembering the purpose of his visit, took a

  long breath to steady himself. When he spoke again, his voice was both calm

  and reasonable. "Ozamaland may be a great and powerful country, and you may

  also be its King, but remember that you are no longer in Ozamaland,"

  explained Roger firmly. "You are on this ship by the express wish and

  kindness of the Captain and in the company of Kings and BETTER. WAIT!"

  Shaking a claw at Tandy's back, Roger flew off to fetch one of Ato's books

  from the shelf above the stove. Tandy was in the same position when he

  returned, but paying him no further attention, Roger pulled the lamp nearer

  and opened his volume. "When a King is in the company of Kings," began the

  Read Bird impressively, "he is no longer a special or royal being, but

  merely a man among men, and as such must maintain his honor and standing by

  sheer worth and ability alone."

 "Who says that? What are you reading?" Tandy sat up with sudden interest,

  for his whole life had been spent in study and reflection, and the voice of

  the Read Bird was not unlike the voice of Woodjabegoodja, his royal

  instructor at home.

 "I am reading Maxims for Monarchs," answered Roger calmly, "a book of

  great authority and antiquity that has been used by the Rulers of Oz and Ev

  and the Nonestic Islands these many thousand years. No great and important

  country would think of being without a copy of this book," he continued

  severely.

 "Strange, then, that I should not have heard of it," mused Tandy, looking

  not quite so sure of himself. "We have no Maxims for Monarchs in

  Ozamaland."

 "Pooh, Ozamaland!" Roger dismissed the whole country with a shrug of his

  wing. "A country as young and unimportant as that would probably know

  nothing about such matters."

 "You mean my country is not so old or important as Oz and this two-penny

  island of your fat Master?" shouted Tandy angrily.

 "Of course not. Why, it's not even been discovered, and whoever has been

  there?" demanded Roger disdainfully. "Take you, as its King, acting in this

  small upcountry fashion. What CAN a fellow think? HereFF20C4" Shoving the

  book toward the disagreeable young monarch, the Read Bird urged him to look

  for himself. With a puzzled frown, Tandy reread the passage Roger had just

  quoted.

 "Well, even though your Master is a King, you're not a King and neither

  is Samuel Salt," said Tandy, looking at Roger with some of his former

  arrogance.

 "Oh, isn't he? Well, just lay to this, young fellow," Roger shook his claw

  under Tandy's upturned nose. "Samuel Salt is Captain of this ship, a Knight

  and the Royal Discoverer of Oz, which makes him seventy times as important

  as you, King Pins. He not only is boss of the Crescent Moon, but he

  ruled the sea, discovering countries for other Kings to govern, and if it

  were not for Samuel Salt and people like him, there wouldn't be any

  Kingdoms or people like you to run them. See? As for me, I'm a Royal Read

  Bird and wouldn't be a King for a minute. I can live my own life and go and

  come as I please."

 "Then while I'm on this ship, I'm not a King at all," said Tandy

  wonderingly. "Then what am I? What am I supposed to do?" The little boy

  looked puzzled and positively frightened.

 "Why, you're supposed to act like a person, that is, if possible," sniffed

  Roger, reaching over for his book and looking at Tandy sideways down his

  bill. "What are you besides a King? What can you do that is useful or

  interesting?"

 "Do, DO?" Tandy's voice rose shrilly. "Why, er, why, I can draw pictures and

  ride an elephant."

 "Good!" Roger put up his claw to hide the grin that, in spite of his best

  efforts, began to spread round his bill. "Well, there isn't much call for

  drawing or elephant-riding on a ship, but you can draw water to swab the

  decks, and I'll teach you to ride the yards and follow the crosstree to the

  main topgallant mast in the blowingest blow that ever blowed. And depend

  upon it, young man, you'll have more fun as a person than you ever had as a

  King. There's no place for having fun like a ship!"

 "Fun!" said Tandy flatly and inquiringly. "What's that?"

 "Tar and tobaccy jack! What are you tellin' me?" Roger almost toppled off

  the sea chest. "Do you mean to sit there like a dumb image and tell me

  you've never had any fun? Never felt so bursting full of ginger and

  happiness you could sing or do a sailor's hornpipe?"

 "It is not seemlyFF20C4" began the boy in a staid voice, "It isFF20C4"

 "Seemly! Great goosefeathers, are you alive or aren't you?" gasped Roger.

  "What in paint did you do in that cussed country of yours before you got

  carried off and penned up like a pig in the jungle?"

 Considering Roger's question, Tandy clasped and unclasped his hands

  nervously. "Well, you must know," he began in a very grown-up voice, "the

  King of Ozamaland is not allowed to mingle with the common people. In all

  things he is alone and set apart. So it was with my father and mother

  before they disappeared. So it is with me. Furthermore, it being prophesied

  that I would be carried off by an aunt in the middle years of my youth, it

  was deemed expedient and necessary to keep me locked away from danger in

  the White Tower of the Wise Men."

 "Hurumph!" grunted the Read Bird, who had not heard so many long words since

  the voyage began. "And what did you do in this precious tower?"

 "I studied," sighed Tandy, reclining wearily back on his pillows, "for there

  are many things a King must learn. But one hour of every evening I was

  permitted to walk about the garden on top of the tower and look down upon

  my Kingdom. On very great occasions I was allowed to come out and ride the

  white elephant in the grand processions of state."

 "Humph!" grunted Roger again, looking at Tandy with round, dismayed eyes.

  "And with whom did you play?" he asked after a little silence.

 "Play?" Again Tandy's voice was politely inquiring.

 "The word was play," insisted the Read Bird doggedly. "With whom did you

  run about, play tag, checkers, pirates or go fishing?"

 Tandy looked confused, and Roger shook his head sorrowfully. "Never heard of

  such things!" he exclaimed indignantly. "Well, all I can say is, whoever

  carried you off and shut you up in that jungle cave did you a real service.

  If you had not been there, we never would have found you, and I'm here to

  tell you that from now on things are going to be different. You're

  discovered now and aboard the grandest ship afloat. You can forget all

  about being a King and start right in being a person and an able-bodied

  seaman. I for my part mean to see you have some fun or break a wing in the

  attempt."

 "But would a KingFF20C4"

 "King! Never let me hear that terrible word again," shuddered Roger,

  sticking his head under his wing and then popping it out again. "From now

  on you're just plain Tandy and can do as you please so long as it does no

  harm to yourself or the ship. Understand? And tomorrow we'll start having

  fun, so be ready." Roger's promise sounded almost like a threat, but there

  was such a merry twinkle in his eye, Tandy began to feel interested. "You

  might even begin tonight," sniffed Roger, taking up the tray. "Just begin

  by thinking of something you want to do. Think about it hard and then DO

  it." Winking cheerfully over the empty plates, the Read Bird spread his

  wings and sailed through the port. For several minutes, Tandy lay where he

  was, turning Roger's last injunction over and over in his stiff, precise

  little mind. What DID he really want to do? At first he could think of

  nothing. Then suddenly he knew. Why, of course C4 he wanted to talk to

  Kobo and he just plain WOULD. There was a frosted cake left from his

  supper, and slipping it into his blouse, Tandy stepped quietly out on deck.

  The ship, with only a slight roll, was moving briskly through the water,

  white foam falling in lacy spray from her sides, the moon-white sails

  spread like giant wings above his head. There was no one in sight, and

  almost holding his breath, Tandy tiptoed aft and leaned adventurously over

  the taffrail.

 "Kobo, Yo KOBO!" he called huskily.

 "Hello! I thought you'd be out soon." Swinging round and turning her vast

  smile upward, the hippopotamus gazed fondly at her young charge. "Are you

  comfortable? Did you have a good dinner?" she asked anxiously.

 "Yes, and look what I saved for you!" As he spoke, Tandy glanced over his

  shoulder as if he were almost afraid to have anyone see him enjoying

  himself. "Open your mouth, Kobo!" he whispered eagerly. Without hesitation

  or question the hippopotamus stretched her jaws wide, and Tandy, with the

  first real thrill of his life, flung the frosted cake into that immense

  pink cavern. As Kobo neatly caught and snapped her lips on the tempting

  morsel, Tandy let out a faint cheer and began to think there might be

  something in Roger's suggestions after all. "I'll throw you lots of things

  tomorrow," he promised gaily. "Good night, Kobo. Good night, Kobo dear."

 Humming a tuneless little song, the young King hurried almost cheerfully

  back to his cabin. Pausing in the doorway of his tidy quarters, he looked

  about complacently. What did he want to do next? There was no one to tell

  him to go to bed, so he just plain wouldn't. He'd sit up as late as he

  plain pleased. Rummaging through Peter's sea chest, which Ato had placed

  near his bunk, Tandy found a large tablet of stiff paper, a box of paints

  and some crayons. Settling himself cross-legged on his bunk, he began

  drawing, not pictures of the castles and courtiers of Ozamaland, but

  pictures of the queer beasts and Leopard Men he had seen on Patrippany

  Island. When Roger, on first watch, called out eight bells, he saw Tandy's

  light still burning, and flying down to investigate found his new pupil

  fast asleep in the middle of his masterpieces. The whole bunk was covered

  with bright drawings and pictures, and even to Roger's inexperienced eye

  they seemed excellently done. So carefully the Read Bird stowed them in the

  sea chest, then, without bothering to waken or undress the little King, he

  covered him with a light blanket and went quietly from the cabin.

 CHAPTER 9

 SEA LEGS FOR TANDY

 "If what Roger tells us is so, little Sauce Box yonder has had a pretty dull

  life," said Ato as he and the Captain sat finishing their breakfast next

  morning. "Lucky for him we happened along, and anyway, the hippopotamus

  will be good company, eh Samuel? She seems downright sensible and jolly.

  Reminds me of Pigasus, and I suppose she does belong to the pig family when

  you come to think of it."

 "Well, she's a pretty big pig if she does," laughed Samuel Salt, swallowing

  his coffee with gusty relish. "Pretty big any way you take her. Personally,

  I like the animal, but the King and son of a King's son! PAH! Reminds me of

  Peter, he's so different, and the sooner we reach Ozamaland and set him

  ashore, the better. Meals in his own cabin. Hoh!"

 "Oh, give him time," drawled Ato, helping himself a second time to fried

  potatoes. "If there's any good in the lad, a sea voyage will bring it out,

  and what chance has he had shut up in a tower for ten years and in a cage

  for five months? Though how an aunt managed to have him carried so far and

  why she left him with those savages in the jungle I can't get through my

  head at all."

 "Maybe it was a gi-ant," whistled Roger, swooping down on Ato's plump

  shoulder and flapping his wings cheerfully. "How far do you figure it is to

  Ozamaland, Master Salt?"

 "Well, that I couldn't just say," answered Samuel in a milder voice. Pushing

  back his chair, he stepped over to the map on the west wall. "Maybe a

  thousand leagues or so from Patrippany Island, maybe more, in a line east

  by sou'east from Ev. If that is so, we're bound to bump into it sometime,

  as I've set my course east by sou'east, and anyway it's all in the year's

  sailing." Samuel bent over with pride to examine the newest island

  discovery he had marked on the chart the evening before. "And when we do

  come to it," he announced firmly, "we'll trade this useless young one for

  some of those flying snakes and creeping birds, eh Mates?"

 "If we bring any more animals aboard, we might as well set up an ark and be

  done with it," warned Ato, shaking his fork at the Captain. "By the way,

  how's Sally this morning?"

 "Tiptopsails!" grinned Samuel. "She eats nothing but hot air and water and

  is no more trouble than a hair in a flea's whisker. I can carry her round

  in my pipe when I want company. Now there's a lass for you!"

 "Well, I'll just see to Nikobo, for she's the girl for me," retorted Ato,

  rolling briskly out of his seat. "I saved all the potato peelings from last

  night, and that, with a dozen cans of peas, corn, carrots and beets, should

  stay her appetite till lunch time."

 "Forty cans at one swallow," groaned Roger, clapping a claw to his head in

  mock dismay. "She'll eat us out of ship and home at this rate. Can't you

  think of something else, King dear? A nice wind pudding or a tub of sea

  soup sprinkled with faggots."

 "Oh, go along with you," roared Ato, and picking up his precious coffee pot

  he waddled cheerfully off to his storeroom. The day was bright and breezy

  and the Crescent Moon, going free, breasted the waves like a

  white-winged sea witch. It was SUCH a morning that even Tandy, peering

  inquiringly from his cabin, felt an uncontrollable impulse to slide down

  the deck. So he did, coming up smartly by Roger, who was perched on the

  rail.

 "That's it! That's it! Now you're catching on," approved the Read Bird,

  hopping cheerfully from one foot to the other. "Now match your step to the

  sea's roll, sonny, get into her rhythm. You've got to breathe with the ship

  to carry your rations on a voyage. Watch the Captain, there, and do as he

  does," finished Roger as Samuel Salt left his cabin and came striding aft.

 "Rather watch you!" exclaimed Tandy, who sensed the Captain's dislike.

  Uneasily, he moved a little nearer the Read Bird.

 "All right, come on then!" shouted Roger, heading recklessly for the

  foremast. "Ever climb a tree?" Tandy shook his head, looking with deep

  misgivings into the maze of sail and rigging above. But Roger was already

  aloft and beckoning for him to follow. "Not that way, Brainless!" scolded

  Roger anxiously as Tandy, gritting his teeth, made a desperate leap upward.

  "See those rope ladders by the rail? Put your feet in the ratlins, boy, and

  come along hand over hand. It's easy as flying once you get the swing of

  it. There, that's better! Come on! Come on! Don't stop! Don't look down."

  So up, up and up the narrow rope ladders toiled Tandy, till Roger, growing

  impatient, seized his collar and helped him straddle the crosstree of the

  fore t'gallant mast. "Ahoy! And isn't this better than riding an elephant?"

  beamed Roger, winking a knowing eye. "Ahoy, this is fun and NO fooling."

  Seeing Tandy was too dizzy and breathless to talk for a moment, Roger

  cheerfully set himself to teach the young Ozamalander a bit about ships and

  sailing. Soon Tandy was so interested he forgot the leap and plunge of the

  ship, the rattle and creak of the cordage, and his own precarious perch in

  the foremast.

 "The Crescent Moon," began Roger with an impressive jerk of his head,

  "is a square-rigged three-masted sailing vessel. Normally 'twould take from

  sixty to eighty men in a crew to set and make sail and bring her about in a

  blow. But Samuel Salt has magic sail controls, so we three manage quite

  easily, and now that YOU are here and the handy hippopotamus below, 'twill

  be easier still. The mast we're riding is the foremast. The mast second

  from the bow, as we call the front of the ship, is the mainmast, and the

  mast at the back, or as we salt-water birds say, the stern of the boat, is

  the mizzenmast. And now for the sails." Roger took a deep breath. "Those

  below, beginning from the bottom up, are the course, the topsail, the

  topgallant sail, the royal and the sky sail. And don't forget!" Roger

  wagged his claw sternly. "Before each sail you must put the name of the

  mast to which it is attached. As, for instance, this ahead of us is the

  fore-topgallant sail. SEE? And everything to the left of the ship's center

  we say is on the port side and anything to the right is on the starboard."

 "Then tell me why is the water on the port side bluer than the water on the

  starboard?" asked Tandy, who had been listening very solemnly as he tried

  to fix all of these strange terms in his head.

 "Bravo!" cried Roger. "Right the first time, Mate. And the water is bluer on

  the port side of the vessel because it is saltier. The bluer, the saltier,"

  declared Roger, who besides his first voyage with the Crescent Moon had

  read all the sea books in Ato's library and was simply crammed with

  deep-sea facts and information. "And what is more," he continued, pursing

  his bill mysteriously, "we're sailing in a magic circle, never knowing what

  may pop up over the edge. A ship? An island? A hurricane? Or even a

  fabulous monster! That's what makes sea voyaging so glorious, and sailing

  so much fun!"

 Tandy, staring at the empty circle of blue falling away from the ship on all

  sides, nodded dreamily. The White City, Patrippany Island, all his former

  life and existence seemed unreal and far away, and he hoped in his heart of

  hearts the Crescent Moon would not reach his native shores for many a

  long, gay day. As Roger said, being a person was fun.

 "M-mm!" Roger sniffed suddenly. "Wonder what Ato's cooking? Smells like

  taffy. I'll bet a ship's biscuit we're going to have a candy pull."

 "A candy pull!" exclaimed Tandy, taking a furious sniff himself. "What is

  that?" As Roger started in to explain about candy pulls, a large green

  column shot up on the skyline, a column so surprising and shocking in

  appearance that Tandy felt positively stunned. "Oh, look! LOOK!" he

  screamed, grabbing Roger's wing. "There's something now. Oh, Roger, what

  fun! What terrible fun!"

 "Fun?" Roger spun round like a weathercock in a gale. "Fun?" he repeated,

  stretching out his neck as far as it would go and a few inches besides.

  "Oh, my best bill and feathers. That's not fun C4 that's a SEA-Serpent.

  Help! Help! Deck ahoy! 'Hoy! 'Hoy! Below! King! Captain! Ato! SAMMY!

  SAM-U-EL!" As if calling them not only by their titles but by their names

  would increase the number of the ship's officers and crew, Roger tugged

  wildly at Tandy's arm. "Below! Below! All hands below," shrilled the Read

  Bird. "Cover all ports and batten the hatches!"

 Urged on by Roger, Tandy, still more interested than frightened, descended

  rapidly to the main deck. At Roger's cries, Ato had run out with a pan of

  bubbling molasses in one hand and his trusty bread knife in the other.

  Right behind him stood Samuel Salt, his eye pressed to his largest

  spyglass. "Well, tar and tarry barrels!" exclaimed the Captain exultantly.

  "Why, this is a sea serpent second to none, the finest example of a marine

  ophidian I've ever met in all my voyages!"

 "Oh, fiddlesticks!" blustered Ato, shaking him angrily by the arm. "Are you

  a Captain or a Collector? Quick, now, make up your mind before your ship is

  crunched down like a cracker and we're all swallowed up with the crumbs!

  Quick, Sammy! For the love of salt mackerel, DO something!" Squeezing

  himself between the cook and the Captain, Tandy saw that there were now

  three immense shiny curves showing above the water, and with scarcely a

  splash the tremendous monster was moving toward the ship. Then suddenly it

  was upon them, and its huge, horrid, unbelievable head came curling far

  over the bow of the Crescent Moon.

 "Avast and belay! Avast and belay, you villain!" yelled Samuel Salt,

  dropping his spyglass and grasping his blunderbuss while Roger beat his

  wings together like castanets and screamed like a fire siren. Tandy, rather

  frightened himself and not knowing what else to do, fell flat on his

  stomach, and pulling a pad from his blouse began making a quick and frantic

  sketch of the dreadful sea beast. Its body was leagues long and yards

  through, the head was large as a whole elephant with a long, curling,

  silver tongue and darting green fangs. But it was the teeth that made even

  the stout heart of Ato hammer against his ribs. Each tooth of this singular

  sea serpent was a live white goblin brandishing a long spear. Leaning far

  out of the yawning mouth, they screamed, hissed and yelled at the

  defenseless company below.

 The next forward thrust of the monster brought its head curling right down

  among them. This so startled Tandy, he could neither move nor scream.

  Samuel fired his blunderbuss so fast and furiously it sounded like a dozen

  guns, but it was Ato who really saved the day and his shipmates. With calm

  and deadly precision, the ship's cook flung the pan of still bubbling

  molasses straight into the cavernous mouth. Screaming with surprise, pain,

  and fury, the monster clamped its jaws together, and finding them stuck

  fast on the taffy, fell writhing back into the sea, dashing and slashing

  its head under water to ease the burn and setting the Crescent Moon to

  dancing like a cocklebur. But the taffy, hardened by contact with the cold

  water, stuck faster than ever, and unable to bite and scarcely able to

  breathe, the discomfited sea monster backed away from the ship and went

  slithering and thrashing away toward the skyline.

 "Well, there goes our candy pull!" sighed Roger, falling in a limp heap to

  Ato's shoulder. "Nice work! Nice work, King dear. There's a certain touch

  about your fighting that is well nigh irresistible."

 "Mains'ls and tops'ls! You certainly pulled a trick THAT time!" puffed

  Samuel Salt, picking up his spyglass to have a last look at his lovely

  specimen. "You saved us and the ship that time, Mate. My bullets rattled

  off its hide like hailstones off a roof."

 "Pooh! Just happened to have the taffy handy," answered Ato, looking rather

  regretfully into the empty pot. "Here, child, run back and tell Kobo

  everything's all right." The ship's cook pulled Tandy quickly to his feet.

  "Just listen to her squealing. The poor lass is probably frightened out of

  her skin." As Tandy started aft on a run, Ato picked up the sketch he had

  made of the monster. "Ahoy, and what's this?" he panted. "What did I tell

  you, Sammy? Look, the boy's drawn as lively a picture of that varmint as

  you'd ever hope to paste in a scrapbook. Here it is, tail, teeth and

  everything!"

 "Mean to say he drew that while we were all standing here ready to perish

  and go down with the ship? Hah! That's what I call bravery in action!"

  exclaimed Samuel. "And goosewing my topsails! If the young lubber can draw

  like this, he'll be a monstrous help to us, Mates. Why, I'll make him cabin

  boy and Royal Artist of the Expedition with extra rations and pay."

 "Hurray! And I'll tell him," puffed Roger, spreading his wings gleefully.

  "Hi, King! Hi, Tandy! Ho, Tandy! You've been promoted from King to cabin

  boy and Royal Drawer of Animals and Islands and extry rations and pay!"

 Nikobo was as pleased as Tandy at her little charge's rise to favor, and

  after they had both listened in rapt silence to Roger's news, Tandy told

  her how Ato had routed the sea serpent. Meanwhile, Roger had carried all

  the sketches Tandy had made of the Leopard Men and Patrippany Island to the

  main cabin. Samuel's delight and enthusiasm at having such spirited and

  authentic records of the lost tribe and strange animals on Patrippany

  Island knew no bounds. He beamed on Tandy so kindly and approvingly the

  next time they met, the little boy felt warm and jolly all the way down to

  his heels. Roger had already exclaimed his new duties to him, and when Ato

  sounded the gong for dinner, Tandy was20the first to answer. But when he

  started to pass the vegetables and wait on the table, the Captain gruffly

  pushed him into a chair.

 "All equals here," roared Samuel, slapping him affectionately on the

  shoulder. "You've earned your place and your salt, sonny, and we'll all

  help ourselves and each other." Tilting back his chair and keeping time

  with his teacup, Samuel began to sing lustily:

 "Blow high, blow low, "Tis a sea life for meFF20C4

 With a good ship's crew I'll sail the blue With a good ship going

  free-eeeh-eeeh!

 With a good ship going free!"

 Almost before he knew it, Tandy was singing, too.

 CHAPTER 10

 THE CITY OF BRIDGES

 The days that followed always seemed to Tandy the happiest he had known. He

  wondered how he had ever endured his long, tedious, pent-up life in

  Ozamaland. There was so much to see and do on a ship that the hours were

  not half long enough. Being a full-fledged member of the crew, he took his

  turn on watch, his trick at the wheel, and had besides other duties on

  deck. After a bit of practice, he could scramble aloft like a monkey and

  liked nothing so much as perching in the rigging looking far out to sea.

  The Read Bird has fastened a special rope to the mizzenmast so that Tandy

  could swing out and drop down on Nikobo's raft, and much of his free time

  was spent with the faithful hippopotamus. Sea life agreed enormously with

  Nikobo, especially since Ato had solved the largest item of her diet.

  Noting the tangled mass of seaweed often floating by on the surface of the

  sea, the clever cook let down the ship's nets daily. The seaweed, crisp,

  tender and green, was dragged on deck, where Roger and Tandy went carefully

  through it, removing all crabs, small fish and seashells which seriously

  disagreed with the hippopotamus. A huge hamperfull was lowered to her every

  evening, and with this plentiful supply of green food and with the bread

  and delicious vegetable scraps Ato saved from the table Nikobo fared better

  than she had on the island. The largest tub on the boat served as a

  drinking cup, and this Tandy kept full by playing down the hose from the

  deck, giving her a daily shower of fresh water at the same time. So,

  lacking nothing in interest or comfort, Nikobo enjoyed herself hugely and

  to the fullest extent.

 On calm mornings, with the Crescent Moon hove to, all hands would go

  swimming. Nikobo loved to swim and to roll over and over like a mighty

  porpoise, even though the salt water made her eyes sting. Since Tandy had

  given Samuel the drawings of the Leopard Men, the ship's Captain could not

  do enough for his young cabin boy, and among other things had made a rope

  harness for Nikobo so Tandy could hang on when he perched upon her slippery

  back. At first he had been satisfied to ride Nikobo, but after several days

  he was splashing recklessly with the others and Samuel had taught him all

  the swimming strokes he knew and had Tandy diving over and under the

  hippopotamus in a way to make Roger scream with envy and approval. Swimming

  was the only part of a sea voyage the Read Bird could not really enjoy, but

  he was always on hand to give advice, roosting on Nikobo's head so long as

  she stayed above water and taking hurriedly to his wings when she

  mischievously tried to duck him.

 The hippopotamus made a really splendid raft when they tired of swimming,

  and Ato, who did not care for water sports so much as Samuel or Tandy,

  fished for hours from her back, his feet hooked through the ropes of her

  harness to keep him from falling into the sea. The only thing Tandy

  regretted was Nikobo's great size and that she could not come aboard ship

  and join them in the cabin. On cool evenings he and Ato and the Captain

  (Roger preferring to take first watch) would sit cozily round the fire

  listening to the stories Samuel told them of the days when he had been a

  pirate and roamed up and down the Nonestic, capturing the ships and

  treasure of all the powerful island monarchs. Tandy never tired of these

  thrilling sea battles or of watching Samuel Salt's pet fire lizard.

 Sally was now so tame she would allow any one of them to pick her up. They

  had to be careful not to hold her against their clothing, however, for

  though Sally did not burn the fingers, she set fire to whatever she

  touched. Indeed, whenever they wanted a fire in the grate, they had only to

  place the Salamander on the kindling beneath the logs, and a cheery flame

  would blaze up instantly. It was in the fireplace that Sally took most of

  her exercise, racing and skittering over the glowing logs or rolling

  happily in the red-hot embers. But most of her time she spent curled up in

  Samuel Salt's pipe, and it was always a surprise to Tandy to see her

  comical head pop up over the edge of the bowl or hear her chirping and

  purring to herself from her cozy bed of tobacco leaves.

 Some evenings, when Ato was trying out new recipes in the galley, Tandy and

  Samuel would descend to the hold to look over the plants from Patrippany

  Island, try to figure out the script on the piece of lava, and sort and

  arrange Samuel's shell collection. Every day after the nets were drawn up

  there were new specimens to classify and label. The drawing Tandy had made

  of the Sea Lion and all the pictures of the Leopard Men and beasts on

  Patrippany Island Samuel had framed and hung above his shelves so that the

  hold was looking more and more like a scientific laboratory every day.

 "Do you suppose we'll ever find anything large enough to put in those big

  cages and aquariums?" asked Tandy one night as he pasted a pink label on a

  fluted conch shell.

 "Sure's eight bells!" murmured Samuel Salt comfortably. "No telling what'll

  turn up on a voyage like this. Personally, I've set my heart on a roc's

  egg, but setting the heart on a roc's egg won't hatch one out, Ho, Ho! No,

  No! But on the other hand, one never can tell, and we've had a week of such

  fine and pleasant days I look for something to happen any moment now, so

  you'd better put up your paste pot and turn in, my lad, so we'll all be

  ready for the morning."

 "Well, what would you do with a roc's egg?" inquired Tandy, reluctantly

  clapping the top on his bottle of glue. "Aren't they terribly big and

  terribly scarce, Captain Salt?"

 "Terribly!" admitted Samuel Salt, placing his tray of lamp shells back on

  their stand. "But a newly laid roc's egg is as rare as a mermaid's foot,

  and no larger than one tar barrel. Now if we could just get a newly laid

  roc's egg aboard and find some way to preserve it, well and good; if we

  didn't find a way and it hatched before we landed, it could easily fly off

  with us and the ship, for THAT'S how big a bird a roc is. But I'll take a

  chance if I ever find a roc's egg, and there's an island somewhere in these

  waters where rocs are known to nest. Rock Island it's called, and a roc's

  nest would be something to see, eh, Kinglet?"

 "Please don't call me that," begged Tandy earnestly. "Roger says I don't

  have to be a King on this ship, and I like not being a King."

 "Ha! Ha! And I like you that way myself," roared Samuel, tossing Tandy

  suddenly to his shoulder. "Why, since you've stopped this King and son of a

  Kinging, you're a seaman after my own heart, and so long as the Crescent

  Moon's afloat you've a berth on her! Up with you! Up with you! Tomorrow's

  another day." Swinging gaily to the main deck, Samuel tumbled Tandy into

  his bunk and went striding aft to take in his main and mizzen topsails.

 Next morning, while he and Ato were cutting up potatoes for Nikobo, Tandy

  was not surprised to hear a loud hail from above. Something had happened,

  just as Samuel had predicted. Running out with a paring knife still in his

  hand, he saw a strange, glittering, mountainous island abaft the beam. It

  was still a goodish sea mile away, but with the glasses Ato generously

  pressed upon him, Tandy made out the most curious bit of geography the eyes

  of a voyager had yet gazed on. There was not a piece of level ground on the

  island anywhere. Its high, glittering, needle-like peaks rose straight out

  of the sea with apparently no way of ascending or descending. Of clear

  crystal, reflecting every color of the rainbow, the beautiful island was

  almost too dazzling to look at as it lay shimmering and sparkling in the

  bright sunshine. As they sailed nearer, Tandy saw that a perfect maze of

  high and airy bridges ran like a gigantic spider web between the peaks. On

  these bridges all the island's life and activities seemed to take place.

  Quaint fluted cottages were built in the center, and along the perilous

  catwalks on either side raced the Mountaineers themselves, brandishing

  glittering poles and spears and halberds.

 "Pikes on the peak! Pikes on the peak! Port your helm, Sammy," roared Ato.

  "Not too close! Not too near, Sam-u-el. How'd you like to be pinned to the

  mast with a spear or flattened on the deck with a boulder?"

 "Ah, now, they're just excited!" answered Samuel Salt, squinting curiously

  up at the Bridgemen, but Nikobo, with her short legs resting on the top

  rail of her raft, squealed out a dolorous warning.

 "Fighters! Fighters! These Pikers look savager than the Leopard Men. Best

  back away, Master Captain, while there's still time."

 "Oh, look! LOOK! There's a ship on the mountain," cried Tandy, jerking

  Samuel's sleeve, "right there where that torrent comes down between the

  bridges, a three-master, larger than the Crescent Moon."

 "Then it's a battle!" boomed Samuel, bringing his helm hard around. "Stand

  by to man the guns. 'Hoy, all hands, 'hoy!" While his shipmates sprang to

  attention, Samuel darted from mast to mast, touching the buttons on his

  sail controls.

 "AYE DE AYE OH LAY!" The shrill, unexpected cry came from the highest bridge

  on the island and was immediately taken up and repeated by all the Pikemen

  on the lower bridges. It resulted in such a mad medley of yodels that Ato

  clapped both hands to his ears, and Nikobo plunged her head in her drinking

  tub.

 "Not only fighters, but singers!" grunted Ato, swinging the port gun into an

  upright position. "Beef beans and barley bread! What a rumpus!" Tandy, who

  with Roger had charge of the other gun, could not help but admire the calm

  way Samuel Salt ignored the dreadful outcry from the bridges. Whether the

  pikes of the islanders could be flung down upon them was still a question,

  but as Tandy looked anxiously aloft, he saw the great white-sailed ship of

  the Mountain Men sweeping toward the torrent. It paused for a breathless

  instant on the top and then came rushing down upon them. They were right in

  the path of the descending vessel, which would strike them with such force

  both ships would surely be demolished.

 "I am a King's son and the son of a King's son," shuddered Tandy, gritting

  his teeth and waiting desperately for the order to fire. "I can bear

  anything."

 "Not this! Not this!" chattered Roger, sliding wildly up and down the shiny

  cannon. "It will shiver your timbers C4 it will shiver all of our timbers.

  What in salt ails the Captain? Why doesn't he give the order to fire and

  pepper these rascals before they reach us? Oh, oh! Oh-hh!" But the only

  orders that came from the Captain were for Nikobo.

 "Overboard, Lassie! Dive off! Quick, now, and swim for your life," bawled

  Samuel Salt, waving both arms frantically at the hippopotamus. As Nikobo

  with a frightened squeal let down the back rail of her pen and slid into

  the sea, Tandy felt a quiver and jerk through the whole length of the

  Crescent Moon. Glancing aloft, he saw a strange change in the sails.

  Where before they had been sturdy single stretches of canvas, they were now

  great, swelling balloon sails, each a perfect air-filled sphere. As the

  ship from the mountain with an angry swish catapulted down from the torrent

  into the sea, the Crescent Moon rose buoyantly into the air, allowing

  the enemy craft to shoot harmlessly beneath her bow.

 "What in Monday!" gasped Ato, flinging both arms round the cannon. "What in

  Monday are you up to now? How'd we do this? Stop! Stop! I'm no flier. No

  higher! No higher! Do you intend to impale us on yonder Peaks?" Samuel

  Salt, hanging desperately to the wheel, made no reply, and as the ship,

  dipping and swaying, soared higher and higher, the deafening yodels of the

  Bridgemen ceased abruptly.

 "Wha-wha-where are you heading?" demanded Roger, spreading his wings in

  order to keep his balance on the sloping deck. "You never told us you had

  balloon sails, Master Salt."

 "Ahoy, but we never needed them before!" panted Samuel. "Look sharp below,

  Roger. Tell me whether I'm over that lake or basin. Look sharp, mind you,

  or we'll come to grief yet."

 "Aye, aye!" quavered the Read Bird, dropping obediently over the side. "It

  all looks sharp to me."

 "Mean to say you're coming down in the middle of these pikes, peaks and

  bridges?" moaned Ato, holding his head with both hands. "Avast and belay,

  Mate, I signed up for a sea voyage and not a balloon ride. The altitude's

  got you, Sammy, that's what. You've air holes in your head. How do you

  expect the four of us to conquer this whole pesky, peaky island? How could

  we even take half of them?"

 "By surprise," announced Samuel Salt grimly. "We'll take them by surprise.

  Look, they're too surprised to even yodel. Fetch up the Oz flags, Tandy,

  and all hands aft for further orders."

 "Aft and daft!" choked Ato, hanging on to the rail as he made his way toward

  the wheel. When Tandy came hurrying up from the hold, his arms full of Oz

  flags, the Crescent Moon hung directly over the glittering Island.

  Roger fluttered anxiously just below, calling up hoarse information as to

  the size, possible depth and shape of the sparkling blue lake between the

  peaks.

 Listening carefully to Roger's directions, Samuel deflated his balloon sails

  so skillfully the Crescent Moon came down lightly as a swan in the

  exact center of the Lake. Above and around the ship on all sides hung the

  glittering spans of a beautiful Bridge City, and in stunned silence and

  dismay the Bridgemen looked down on the flying ship and its curious crew.

 "Ahoy and hail, Men of the Mountain!" challenged Samuel in a ringing voice.

  "You are now part and parcel of the great Kingdom of Oz, free as before to

  govern yourselves, but from this day and henceforth on, an island

  possession and colony under the protection and puissant rule of her Majesty

  Queen Ozma of Oz!"

 "OZ! Ozay Oz Oh Lay?" The cry came from the tallest and most splendid of the

  Islanders, who was standing with folded arms on the lacy span connecting

  the two highest peaks on the Mountain.

 CHAPTER 11

 THE PRINCE OF THE PEAKS

 The cry, though loud, was no longer defiant, and Tandy with a little gasp of

  relief saw the Mountaineers on all the bridges bring their pikes to rest

  beside them and gaze aloft for further orders.

 "I am Alberif, Prince of the Peaks," stated the Man on the Highest Bridge,

  looking coolly down at Samuel Salt. "But YOUFF20C4 you who come in this

  flying ship to conquer the Island of Peakenspire, who are YOU?"

 "Ato the Eighth, King of the Octagon Isles, Sir Samuel Salt, Captain of the

  Crescent Moon and Royal Explorer of Oz, Tazander Tazah, King of

  Ozamaland, and myself, a Royal Read Bird," shouted Roger before any of the

  others had time to speak for themselves. The Prince of the Peaks, tall and

  splendid in his shining coat and breeches of silver cloth, his

  broad-brimmed hat with its quill and rosette of wildflowers, looked so much

  more impressive than anyone aboard the Crescent Moon, Tandy half

  expected him to laugh at Roger's boastful announcements. But instead,

  Alberif, leaning far out over his royal bridge, looked down at them long

  and seriously.

 "Two Kings, a Royal Discoverer, a Flying Ship and a Read Bird! Hi de Aye de

  Oh!" whistled the handsome monarch, shaking his head ruefully. "No wonder

  we were captured. What then are your terms, Kings, Captain, Bird and

  Conquerors?"

 "Not conquerors, COMRADE," called up Samuel Salt in his hearty voice. "Only

  by your own wish, agreement and consent shall ye come under the rule of Oz.

  If your Highness could but descend from yon Royal Bridge to this ship,

  everything can be arranged both peaceably and pleasantly."

 "FF20'Ware, Alberif! 'Ware, Alberif!" yodeled the Pikemen on the lower

  bridges. "Once aboard that ship eeee-ip! We may never see you again

  eeeee-yen!"

 "Oh, nonsense!" blustered Samuel Salt impatiently. "I give you my word as a

  Pirate and a seaman no harm shall come to you on the Crescent Moon."

 The Prince stood lost in thought for a moment. Then, tapping his long

  alpenstock sharply, he issued a high, yodeled command. From the bridgehead

  an immense basket swooped down. The Prince seated himself gravely in the

  basket and with three men manipulating the ropes made a swift and dizzy

  descent to the deck of the Crescent Moon. While Samuel and Roger

  welcomed the tall and lordly Ruler of the Mountain Isle, Ato hurried off to

  the galley to prepare some suitable refreshments for his entertainment.

  Tandy, after Samuel had introduced him, began making careful sketches of

  the handsome Prince, of the lovely city of bridges, and of the Pikemen, who

  still looked with suspicion and distrust upon the ship that had taken the

  place of their own.

 "How about that basket?" whispered Roger, who had come out to help Ato in

  the galley. "How'd you like to be hoisted and lowered like a sail? And for

  salt's sake, King dear, dust the flour off your nose and put on your crown,

  or this fellow will think you're King of the Cookies and Doughnuts."

 "Ha, ha! When he's tasted my plum cake, he'll not think it, he'll know it!"

  puffed Ato, bustling happily from cupboard to cupboard. "Bring out the best

  tumblers and silver plates, fetch up a dozen bottles of my famous Sea-pop

  from the hold, and we'll have this island in our pocket before you can say

  Oz Robinson!"

 When Ato with one tray and Roger with another came out, they found the

  Captain and the Prince of the Peaks striding up and down the deck in the

  friendliest conversation imaginable. Matched in height and handsomeness,

  the two were discussing with lively interest everything from ships and

  governments to the strange limestone that formed the crystalline rocks of

  Alberif's island. Later, seated around the table with Tandy and Roger

  passing plum cake and Sea-pop, the Prince grew friendlier and more

  confidential still. "We've never been conquered before," admitted his

  Majesty with a puzzled smile, "but really I find it both interesting and

  enjoyable."

 "Just a matter of chance and luck," said Samuel Salt with a modest wave of

  his hand. "Had I not had balloon sails on the Crescent Moon, your ship

  would have cut us clean in two before we had time to put about."

 "That is what I always planned would happen to an enemy craft," sighed

  Alberif. "Naturally, our own ship, the Mountain Lass, would have been

  destroyed too, but we could easily have built another. That is what we'll

  have to do anyway, as we'll never be able to haul her up the torrent."

 "Don't you do it," begged Samuel Salt, looking earnestly at the Mountain

  Monarch. "I'll send you a set of balloon sails as soon as I reach Elbow

  Island. The Red Jinn presented me with two sets, and I'll be delighted to

  send you one. Once they're set, you can fly up as easily as we did and be

  ready for all and sundry, even US if we come again."

 "Come and welcome!" beamed Alberif, looking in some surprise at Sally, who

  had just lifted her head above the rim of Samuel's pipe bowl. "But tell me,

  what am I to do now that I am conquered? Surely something is required of

  us?"

 "Nothing! Nothing at all!" Samuel spoke earnestly and admiringly. "This

  island and your men are in fine shape and a great credit to you, so just go

  on as you are, but from this time forth you'll be in contact with the

  famous and most modern Fairyland in History, and if you are ever beset by

  enemies, you can call upon Oz for assistance or help. In time, fruit,

  foodstuffs, books and merchandise will arrive from Oz, and in return you

  may send back some of the sparkling crystals composing these mountains. You

  might even invite a band of settlers from Oz to come and live as your loyal

  subjects here."

 "Gladly! Gladly!" agreed the Prince, his eyes sparkling at the prospect. "We

  have many uninhabited peaks and spires and could easily accommodate a

  thousand new bridge builders. Come with me, all of you, to Skytop Tower,

  and we'll run up the flag of Oz and sign a pledge of allegiance to her

  Majesty Queen Ozma. AYE DE AYE OH LAY!" Running out on deck, Alberif

  joyously beckoned to the men who operated the traveling basket, inviting

  them all to enter. Ato, who had no intention of trusting his two hundred

  and fifty pounds to this strange conveyance, shook the Prince regretfully

  by the hand.

 "I'll just watch it all from here," said the ship's cook firmly. "I've pie

  to cook, potatoes to peel, and dinner to stir up for all hands and a

  hippopotamus, so if you'll kindly excuse meFF20C4"

 The Prince looked a little disappointed, but cheered up as Samuel, Roger and

  Tandy followed him into the basket.

 "Haul away!" yelled Samuel Salt, winking at Ato, and to the shrill tune of a

  ringing round of yodels, their curious elevator rose from the deck, spun

  merrily up to the Twin Peaks and highest bridge of Alberif's Mountain. Used

  as he was to the tall masts and lofty rigging of the Crescent Moon,

  Tandy felt sick and giddy as the basket swooped and swung upward. But it

  came down safely at last, and at sight of the shining spans of the lacy

  city spread out below and the glittering castle rising from the royal

  bridge, Tandy forgot all his uneasiness. With a little whistle of surprise

  and interest, he followed Samuel and Alberif into the royal dwelling, while

  Roger flew off on a little exploring expedition of his own. Roger knew all

  about castles and was much more interested in the many windowed, fluted

  cottages of the yodelers. Ato, watching from the deck of the Crescent

  Moon, presently saw the flag of Oz fluttering from the top turret of the

  Castle Tower, and with a little sigh of relief and pride he gathered up the

  empty pop bottles and padded off to his galley. Soon Oz flags floated from

  the posts on all the bridgeheads, adding much to the gaiety and beauty of

  Alberif's city.

 >From the Royal Bridge Tandy and Samuel had a splendid view, and of his many

  experiences, Tandy always remembered best the afternoon spent on

  Peakenspire. Alberif was a merry as well as an interesting host, explaining

  everything from the strange traveling baskets to the age-old customs and

  treasures of the Islanders. In the baskets the Islanders could travel from

  bridge to bridge and down to the sea itself when they wished to go fishing.

  There was little soil between the rocks, but such soil as there was was so

  amazingly fertile that each family could raise all the fruits and

  vegetables required in one small window box. After long experimentation and

  culture, Alberif's ancestors had perfected two curious vines. On one,

  vegetables grew in rapid rotation, potatoes following peas, corn following

  potatoes, carrots following corn, beets following carrots, cabbages, lima

  beans and spinach after the beets. The vine never withered or died, and by

  cutting off the top every day, the Islanders were assured of a continuous

  supply of fresh vegetables. The fruit vine was of the same variety,

  furnishing every known berry, fruit and melon. Each family was given two of

  these vines and thus had very little worry about food supplies. Birds,

  something of a cross between wild ducks and chickens, made their nests in

  the craggy peaks, and with their eggs and a plentiful supply of fish and

  other sea food, the Islanders fared splendidly.

 The Bridgemen were tall, blue-eyed, handsome and happy. Men and women alike

  wore short trousers and blouses of silver cloth and carried pikes that

  served both as weapons and alpenstocks. The bridges, while delicate as fine

  lace in construction, were supple and strong as steel. The material mined

  from the mountains themselves was like silver and crystal combined, a new,

  strong and glittering metal, samples of which Samuel happily thrust into

  his pocket.

 "Sounds like magic," said Tandy, who had been listening closely to Alberif's

  description of life on Peakenspire.

 "It is a magic of a kind," answered the Prince with a pleased little

  nod. "And the air here is so light and sparkling we never tire, grow old or

  have illness of any kind, so that my people are always light hearted and

  happy, spending most of their time in dancing and singing."

 "I see," murmured Samuel Salt, "erFF20C4 and hear," he added quickly as

  the wild, joyous cries of Alberif's yodelers made every window in the

  palace rattle. "I'll certainly make a note of all this and report

  Peakenspire Island to Queen Ozma as the most interesting discovery of the

  voyage."

 "I am highly honored!" Alberif bowed stiffly. "Highly honored! HI dee Aye de

  OH-hhhh!" Jumping into the air, the Prince of the Peaks kicked his heels

  together from sheer exuberance. "Wait," he told them cheerfully, "and I'll

  get you some fruit and vegetable vines to take back with you." Tandy and

  Samuel could not help grinning as Alberif rushed off. To tell the truth,

  there was something so light and exhilarating about the mountain air they

  found it difficult to walk calmly themselves. As the Prince returned,

  Samuel felt a loud and uncontrollable yodel rising in his own throat, and

  seizing Tandy's arm, he bade Alberif a hasty and hearty adieu. Bidding him

  keep a sharp lookout for the airships from Oz and loaded down with crystals

  and vines, the two explorers climbed into the basket and were swung swiftly

  down to the deck of the Crescent Moon. Roger, flying under his own

  power and yodeling like a native, arrived soon after. With Oz flags flying

  from all bridges and the Mountaineers calling out rousing and melodious

  farewells, Samuel inflated his balloon sails, and the ship soared

  gracefully aloft, circled the island three times, and then dropped lightly

  down upon the surface of the sea. The Mountain Lass in charge of

  Alberif's husky crew lay just off shore, and there she would have to stay

  till Samuel sent a set of balloon sails to lift her back to the Lake among

  the peaks.

 Nikobo, who'd been swimming anxiously round and round, gave a bellow of

  relief as she spied the Crescent Moon. "I thought you'd been captured

  and destroyed!" wheezed the hippopotamus, scrambling hastily aboard her

  raft. "Next time you fly off, take me aboard or give me a balloon sail,

  too. I'm so full of salt water, I'm perfectly pickled and somebody'll have

  to scrape the barnacles off my hide."

 "But we've brought you a present," called Tandy, leaning far over the

  taffrail, "a vegetable vine that will keep you supplied with fresh

  vegetables as long as we're at sea. SEE! DEEEE Aye DEE OH!"

 "Avast and balaydeeaye!" barked Samuel Salt grimly. "Let's get away from

  here. This is no way for able-bodied seamen to talk." Rushing from wheel to

  mast, he quickly set his sail. "Ahoy! Ahoy Dee Oy Dee OH!" he yodeled,

  then, very red in the face, he blew three shrill blasts on his foghorn,

  swung his ship about, and the Crescent Moon, with a spanking breeze on

  her quarter, went skimming away toward the southern skyline.

 CHAPTER 12

 FOG

 The evening had blown up raw and cold, and after carrying an old tarpaulin

  down to cover Nikobo, Tandy had come shivering back to the main cabin.

  Samuel Salt had close-reefed his topsails and double-reefed his courses,

  adjusted his mechanical steering gear, and now sat beside the fire

  examining a heap of the glittering crystals from Alberif's island.

 "Just sketch Peakenspire Island on the chart, there where I've made the

  cross," he directed, looking up with an absent smile as the little boy came

  over to warm himself at the cheerful blaze. "You're such a hand with a

  brush, even in so small a place you can give a good idea of the City of

  Bridges."

 "And a good idea they are," murmured Ato, who was busy mending his fishing

  nets on the other side of the fireplace. "In every port we learn something

  new, eh Mate? All mountains, no matter how high and peaked, could be lived

  on if they were properly bridged."

 "True, quite true," agreed Samuel, squinting contentedly through his

  magnifying glass while Tandy began sketching in the latest discovery on the

  sea chart. "I've written it all up in my journal and put down Peakenspire

  Island as able to accommodate a thousand settlers from Oz and as an

  especially good place for poets."

 "Provided they are deaf," put in Ato, looking comically over his specs. "AYE

  DEE AYE DEE OH! While you fellows were aloft, I got to yodeling so fast and

  furious I blew all the saucepans off their hooks."

 "Yes, that is one disadvantage," admitted Samuel, glancing approvingly

  at Tandy's picture of Alberif's Island, "but never mind, we don't have to

  live there, and think of the splendid specimens we've brought away, Mates!"

  Samuel ran his fingers lovingly through the heap of crystals and strands of

  metal Alberif had given him. "And those fruit and vegetable vines will

  provision us for the whole voyage."

 "They're a great comfort to me, I assure you," muttered Ato, holding up his

  net to the light to see whether there were any more holes. "Now I know Kobo

  will never starve. I put a vegetable vine in a box on her raft, and that

  leaves two for us, two for Ozma, and maybe Tandy would like to take the

  other two home with him?"

 "Home?" Tandy swung round in positive dismay. "Oh, we're not near Ozamaland

  yet, are we Captain?" His voice sounded so dismal, Samuel Salt threw down

  his magnifying glass with a roar of merriment.

 "Shiver my timbers, lad, one would think you did not wish to reach Ozamaland

  at all," he blustered teasingly. "What's the matter with that country of

  yours? You wouldn't keep an honest explorer from adding a creeping bird and

  a flying reptile to his collection, now would ye?"

 "No! No! Of course not," answered Tandy quickly. "But perhaps it is farther

  away than you think, Master Salt, and perhaps the Greys have conquered the

  Whites, and then I won't be King any more."

 "What's this? What's this?" Ato lifted his nose like an old hound that has

  just finished a fox, for he loved a good story even better than he loved a

  good meal. "Who are the Greys and Whites, my lad? You never told us

  anything about this."

 "There's really not much to tell," sighed Tandy, seating himself on a small

  stool before the fire. "In the first place, I suppose you know that the

  great continent of Tarara is divided into two large, long countries.

  Ozamaland is on the east coast, and Amaland on the west coast."

 "Now, I'll just make a note of that," said Samuel Salt, leaning over to pull

  his journal toward him.

 "My country," went on Tandy slowly, "is made up largely of desert and

  jungle, best known for its white elephants and camels and the famous White

  City of Om, first King and ruler of the Kingdom. The Zamas are fierce and

  still wild tribesmen living in tents on the desert and in huts in the

  jungle. Only the thousand Nobles and their families who live in the White

  City have been taught to read and write and live under roofs. That is why

  the Kings of Ozamaland are so well guarded and never allowed out of the

  capital."

 "Then I'd rather be a tribesman," sniffed Ato, letting his nets drop in a

  heap around his feet.

 "But there's no choice," said Tandy thoughtfully. "The nine Ozamandarins who

  make the laws have decreed that the King shall remain in the White City."

 "Well, what about those Whites and Greys?" asked Samuel Salt, pulling out

  his pipe and leaning down close to the fire so Sally could light it for

  him.

 "My people, because they dress in white robes and turbans, are known as the

  Whites, and the Amas, the rough plainsmen who rove the long ranges of

  Amaland, are the Greys. The Amas care for nothing but their swift grey

  horses and often charge over the border to make war on my countrymen. Then

  the Whites, mounted on their white elephants and camels, have all they can

  do to hold their own."

 "Aha, that's what I'd call a REAL battle!" exclaimed Ato, his eyes snapping

  with enthusiasm and interest. Then, noting Samuel's disapproving frown, he

  pursed up his lips, shook his head, and added quickly, "All very wild and

  disorderly, Tandy, my lad. Seems as if the Whites and Greys should manage

  their affairs more peaceably."

 "Yes," said Tandy solemnly, "and I've often thought when I was grown, I'd

  ride over on my white elephant to visit the Greys and see why they are so

  unfriendly."

 "A good idea, and if I were you, I wouldn't wait till I was grown. I'd do it

  as soon as I got back," advised Samuel Salt, taking a long pull at his

  pipe.

 "And very probably get himself cut up and captured," shuddered Ato, shaking

  his head.

 "Well, he's been both shut up and captured anyway, hasn't he?" said Samuel

  mildly. "Now which one of your aunts do you think had you carried off,

  Matey, and how many aunts do you have, anyway?"

 "Three," Tandy answered, counting them off solemnly on his fingers. "And

  they were all pretty and pleasant enough; but after the prophecy of the Old

  Man of the Jungle that I would be carried off by an aunt, they were all

  locked up in the castle dungeon, and I was locked up in the Tower." And

  resting his elbows on his knees, Tandy gazed soberly into the fire as if he

  might discover there the reason for his cruel abduction and imprisonment in

  the jungle. "If I'd only been awake when I was carried away," he exclaimed

  impatiently.

 "They probably gave you a sleeping potion," decided Ato, nodding his head

  portentously, "but it's such a longish distance, unless this aunt had wings

  or a flying eagle, I'll never understand how she shipped you so far and so

  fast."

 "Well, whoever it was did us a real service!" boomed Samuel Salt,

  twinkling his blue eyes affectionately at Tandy. "Even Peter was no better

  aboard a ship, eh Mate?"

 "A real artist and a seaman," agreed Ato, rolling cheerfully back to his

  feet, "and when we reach Ozamaland, I'll talk to these aunts like an

  Octagon uncle, and the Ozamalanders had better hold on to their turbans,

  too."

 "But they wear square hats!" roared Tandy, laughing so hard he almost fell

  off the stool, for he just could not picture the fat King of the Octagon

  Isle berating the haughty judges of Ozamaland.

 "What's the joke?" demanded Roger, flying in through the open port and

  making a straight line for the fire. "Brrr-rah! Wet weather, boys! Wet

  weather! Oh, what a coldth and dampth and gloomth. Why, I'm moister than an

  oyster and clammier than a clam. How about a cup of hot chocolate for the

  Watch, Cook dear? Better see to your sail, Master Salt. Fog's thicker than

  bean soup out there."

 "We'll all have some chocolate," said Ato as Samuel hurried out to see

  how dense the fog really was. Later, sitting by the stove sipping Ato's

  delicious hot chocolate, Tandy could not help comparing this cozy life

  aboard the Crescent Moon with his dull and lonely existence in the

  Royal City of his Fathers.

 "I wish the Greys would capture the Whites," he thought vindictively as

  he followed Roger across the slippery deck. "Then I'd never have to leave

  this ship." The kind-hearted Read Bird was carrying a pail of hot chocolate

  down to Nikobo on the raft. She could not get her great snout into the

  bucket, but she opened her enormous mouth, and with one toss Roger poured

  the whole pail down her throat.

 "That'll keep her warm till morning," chuckled Roger, flying back to join

  Tandy, "and now you'd better turn in, little fellow, for you're on morning

  watch, and eight bells will be sounding before you know it!" All through

  his dreams about the Whites and Greys, Tandy heard the raucous voice of the

  fog horn, and when he rolled sleepily out of his bunk to relieve Ato, the

  ship seemed to be hardly moving at all.

 "Ahoy, Captain! Isn't a fog dangerous?" Tandy's voice seemed more hopeful

  than worried, and Samuel Salt, peering down at the little boy buttoned to

  his chin in Peter's old sou'easter, grinned approvingly.

 "Just about as dangerous as a man-eating tiger," he answered cheerfully.

  "We're liable to ram a ship, run on the rocks, or scrape our bottom on a

  hidden reef or sand bar. These waters, as you know, being all unnavigated.

  But I've brought Sally along to keep my nose warm and throw a bit more

  light on the subject, and we'll have to take our chance, eh Matey? Just

  step aft and see if you can make out anything astern, will you, Tandy?"

 Four o'clock, or rather eight bells, was always pretty dark, and one had to

  depend more or less on the ship's lanterns, but this morning was the

  darkest Tandy had ever experienced. Clinging to the rail, he moved

  cautiously to the stern and gazed intently down into the gloom. Nothing an

  inch beyond his nose was visible, and as for the raft and Nikobo, they

  might just as well not have been there. "Kobo, Kobo, are you all right?"

  There was no answer to Tandy's call, but presently a huge and resounding

  snore rolled upward, and greatly comforted, Tandy hurried back to the

  Captain. Samuel Salt was busy lighting extra lanterns, and as he

  straightened up, a hollow boom, followed by a splintering crash, sent them

  both sprawling to the deck. Leaping to his feet and unmindful of the glass

  from the shattered lanterns, Samuel seized an unbroken one and ran

  furiously to the rail.

 "Ship ahoy! Heave to, you blasted son of a cuttlefish lubber! You've rammed

  us amidships, you blasted Billygoat. Where are your lights? Why didn't ye

  sound the horn?" His lantern, held far over the rail, made no impression at

  all on the choking fog. Jumping up and running after Samuel, Tandy strained

  his eyes for a glimpse of the ship that had hit them, for unmistakably to

  his ears came the scrape and rasp of wood on wood. Yes, surely it was a

  ship. But no answer to Samuel's hail came out of the fog, only the swish

  and murmur of the sea and the rattle of wind in the rigging. But all this

  creaking could not come from the Crescent Moon alone. There was a

  ship beyond them in the fog, but where, as Samuel had demanded, were her

  lights and crew? Wildly, Tandy, hardly knowing what to think or do,

  continued to blink into the maddening darkness. Ato and Roger, wakened by

  the horrible jolt, now came hurrying out, each waving a lantern. "Let go

  the anchor, Mates," ordered Samuel in a stern voice, "we're to grips with

  an enemy ship, so stand by for trouble." Further shortening his sail,

  Samuel waited tensely for the first move from their invisible foe. "Might

  be pirates," he whispered out of the corner of his mouth to Tandy, who

  stood close beside him grasping the scimitar that had once been Peter's.

  "Jump the first man aboard."

 "How about a long shot in their general direction?" wheezed Ato, who found

  the silence and suspense well nigh unbearable.

 "No, it is not for us to start a fight," stated Samuel grimly. "But hah!

  Just let them start one! Fetch me my stilts, Roger, and be quick about

  it, too!"

 "Stilts?" choked the Read Bird, dropping the blunderbuss with which he had

  armed, or rather winged, himself. "You'll never be trying these things

  again; they nearly shivered our timbers last time. Why take another

  chance?"

 "My stilts!" repeated Samuel savagely, and Roger, who knew his duty as a

  sailor, flew without further argument to the hold. When Roger returned with

  a stilt in each claw, the Captain grasped one and, moving silently as a cat

  over to the port rail, he thrust the long pole experimentally out into the

  fog. There was an instant thud, and Samuel himself got a severe jolt as the

  stilt struck against some firm and immovable object beyond. Convinced that

  it was an enemy ship, Samuel returned to the others, and drawn up in an

  anxious row the four shipmates waited for the fog to lift or the first

  enemy seaman to leap aboard.

 "I'll wager it's a derelict or an abandoned vessel with no crew," breathed

  Ato, seating himself on a fire bucket to somewhat ease the long wait. The

  first hour Tandy stood fairly well, but the second seemed interminable. The

  flickering lanterns, the tense quiet, the choking fog and gentle roll of

  the ship all made him desperately drowsy, and much to his later disgust, he

  must have finally fallen asleep. The next thing he remembered was the

  shrill squall of the Read Bird and the pleasant feel of the sun on his

  eyelids.

 "The ship! The pirates! The fog!" thought Tandy, springing up wildly. But

  neither ship nor pirates met his astonished gaze. Abaft the beam lay a

  great, whispering, deep-sea forest, its trees higher than the masts of the

  ship, springing directly out of the water and stretching their leafy

  branches to the sky. It was into one of these giant greenwoods the

  Crescent Moon had crashed in the fog. Samuel was staring at the sea

  forest with the rapt look of a scientist who has just made an unbelievable

  discovery, and Ato, with his elbows resting on the rail, was gazing

  dreamily in the same direction.

 "FF20'Hoy! Ahoy! Why, I never knew there were forests in the sea,"

  exclaimed Tandy, running over to insinuate himself between the cook and the

  Captain.

 "There aren't! It's just plain impossible!" breathed Ato, moving over to

  make room for Tandy. "But impossible or not, there she lies. And isn't it

  pretty?" he mused, resting more than half of his great weight on the rail.

  "I suppose Sammy'll want to dig up a sea tree and bring it along," he

  leaned over to whisper mischievously in Tandy's ear. "And anyway, it's

  better than pirates."

 "Look, look, there's fish in those trees," screamed Roger, bouncing up and

  down on Ato's plump shoulder. "How about some flying fish for breakfast,

  Cook dear?"

 "Breakfast? Breakfast? Can it really be time for breakfast? Ho, hum! I

  thought I was still asleep and dreaming," grunted Ato, giving himself a

  little shake. "Well, forests or no forests, a man must eat, I suppose!" And

  still gazing delightedly over his shoulder, the ship's cook trod

  reluctantly toward the galley while Tandy hurried into the cabin for his

  paints.

 CHAPTER 13

 THE SEA FOREST

 Tandy had to call Samuel twice before he would come to breakfast, and when

  he finally did sit down, he was so busy preparing to explore the sea forest

  he ate scarcely a bite.

 "We'll take the jolly boat," he decided, making long notes in his journal

  between his sips of coffee, "the small nets and knives and baskets for

  cuttings and any specimens we may pick up andFF20C4"

 "Why the jolly boat when we have a jolly seagoing hippopotamus?" inquired

  Roger, elevating one eyebrow. "A jolly hippopotamus, I might add, who runs

  under her own power and saves us the trouble of rowing!" Roger was much

  annoyed because he had failed to catch a flying fish before breakfast, and

  instead of eating his hard-boiled eggs, kept winging over to the open port

  to glare at his finny rivals. Tandy, like the Captain, was too excited to

  eat, and even Ato downed his omelet and fresh strawberries from the

  Peakenspire fruit vine with rare speed and indifference.

 "It's a lucky thing you're so enormous, Kobo," puffed the ship's cabin boy,

  dropping down on the raft a few minutes later. "Ato's got his crab nets and

  fishing lines, Samuel's bringing an aquarium, a couple of baskets, and a

  box. And I have this pail, my paints, and a cage in case Roger does manage

  to catch one of those flying fish." Kobo was staring fixedly at her

  vegetable vine as Tandy dropped down beside her, and now snapping off a

  whole bushel of beans, she turned round and, munching contentedly, surveyed

  the excited boy at her side.

 "Whatever you have can be hung to my harness," she assured him, speaking a

  bit thickly through the beans. "But turn the point of that scimitar up

  instead of down. You wouldn't want to carve old Kobo, now would you? It

  will seem funny swimming through a forest, won't it, little King? The

  further we go on this voyage the queerer everything grows."

 "But I like it queer," stated Tandy, climbing with a satisfied little sigh

  on Nikobo's broad back.

 "I, too, find it most interesting and jolly," agreed the hippopotamus,

  fastening her eyes dreamily on the vegetable vine to see what was coming on

  next. "I thought I might be on short rations when I came on this voyage,

  Tandy, but I declare to goodness I've never had such a rich and varied diet

  in my life. You, too, look fine and strong and much happier than when we

  met in the jungle. But to get back to the fareFF20C4 why, today I've had

  a basket of biscuits, a bushel of beansFF20C4"

 "And that makes it Bean and Biscuit Day, I suppose," giggled Tandy,

  remembering Kobo's strange way of dividing up her week. "But look! Listen!

  Here they come!"

 "Ahoy below, Hip Hip OPOTOMUS, AHOY!" roared Samuel Salt jovially from

  above. "All ready to cast off, my lass?"

 "Aye, aye, sir!" grinned Kobo as Samuel and Ato came panting down the rope

  ladders to the raft. "Move over, Tandy, and make room for the Cook and the

  Captain!" It took nearly ten minutes to get all the gear and crew aboard,

  and Nikobo looked like some curious deep-sea monster when she finally

  shoved off. Two large baskets were slung from ropes across her back. The

  pail and bird cage slapped up and down on one hip, the aquarium on the

  other, and through her collar various fishing rods, nets and poles were

  stuck like quills on a porcupine.

 "Now whatever you do, don't submerge," warned Samuel, holding his tin box

  for especially fragile specimens high above his chest to keep it dry. "Just

  slow and steady, m'lass, so we'll have time to observe and admire and make

  notes of any strange growths and creatures as we ride along."

 "Creatures!" exclaimed Tandy, twisting round. He was perched on Nikobo's

  head, his paints held carefully in his lap. "Would there be any wild

  animals in a sea forest, Master Salt?"

 "Sea Lions, likely," predicted Samuel, peering round eagerly as Nikobo

  paddled between two slippery-barked sea trees into the murmuring forest

  itself. Except for the fact that the floor of this curious sea wood was the

  blue and restless sea, it might almost have been a forest ashore. The

  trees, tall, straight, and stately, towered up toward the sky. Staring down

  into the clear green water, Tandy saw their trunks going down, down, down

  as far as he could see. "Rooted in the very ocean bed," marveled Samuel

  Salt, touching one lovingly as they passed. "What splendid masts these

  would make, Mates! Avast and belay, Nikobo, I believe I'll just take a

  cutting or two."

 "Ha, ha!" roared Ato, peering over Samuel's shoulder. "So now we're going to

  grow our own masts."

 Samuel himself, leaning far out over Nikobo's back, severed three young

  shoots from the sea tree and popped them happily into the aquarium. Vines

  that were really of coral ringed the gigantic trunks like bracelets, and

  the leaves of the trees were long ribbons of green and silver that whipped

  and fluttered like banners in the morning breeze.

 "What's that?" puzzled Ato as the hippopotamus made her way leisurely

  between the trees. "Looks like mushrooms, Sammy! Wait, I'll just pick me a

  few and see." Hooking his heels in Nikobo's harness, Ato began vigorously

  cutting from the trunk of one of the trees the colored fungus growths which

  sprouted in great profusion just above the water line. Nikobo bravely

  offered to sample some, and after waiting anxiously to see whether they

  would have any ill effects, the ship's cook decided they were harmless and

  joyfully filled one of the baskets. The only specimens that really

  interested Ato were of the edible variety.

 While he was thus employed, Tandy, an experienced climber by now, scurried

  up to the top of one of the sea trees, breaking off several branches so

  Samuel could press the curious leaves in his album. High above his head,

  Tandy could see Roger chasing angrily after a flying fish, muttering with

  anger at his unsuccessful efforts to overtake the nimble little sea bird.

  In our own southern waters there are large flying fish that leap out of the

  water of the gulf stream, but the flying fish in this Nonestic Sea Forest

  were small, and where most fish have gills wore strong, transparent wings.

  Their claws, somewhat like a crab's, made it possible for them to perch

  jauntily in the branches of the sea trees, and these strange little fellows

  could swim and dive as well as fly. Pulling out his pad, Tandy made a

  lively sketch of one in the tree opposite, for it did look as if Roger

  would never succeed in catching one.

 All morning Nikobo paddled calmly through the dreamy sea forest, Samuel

  making notes, Tandy sketches, and Ato catching in his long-handled nets

  plump little fish and crabs, and filling another basket with the small,

  delicious clams that clung like barnacles to the slippery bark of the sea

  trees. In the shadowy center of the forest where the trees pressed closer

  together and great flat rocks stuck their heads out of the water, the

  explorers came upon several fierce sea lions. They were not smooth and

  shiny like the seals of our own oceans, but yellow and tawny with long

  yellow tusks, tufted tails, and scaly manes. Their front legs ended in

  sharp claws, their back legs were shorter, and their feet were webbed for

  swimming. Only the fact that Nikobo was larger and more frightening to the

  sea lions than they were to her saved the party from a savage attack by

  these malicious-looking monsters. As it was, they retired sullenly into the

  deeper shadows, snarling and roaring defiance as they backed away, but not

  before Tandy had made an effective sketch of the whole group.

 "FF20'Tis a lucky thing for us that you're along!" grunted Ato, drawing his

  feet up out of the water and looking with grim disfavor after the snarling

  sea lions. "Likely as not, if you had not made that picture, Samuel would

  have tried to drag one along by its tail, regardless of our feelings or

  safety."

 "A wild maned sea lion would be a valuable addition to any collection,"

  sighed Samuel Salt, shaking his head regretfully. "But thenFF20C4" He

  grinned in his sudden pleasant way. "Not much of a mascot at that."

 The only other happening of note was Roger's capture of a monkey fish.

  Unable to overtake a flying fish, the Read Bird had pounced on this small

  combination of a land and water beast as it sat quietly sunning itself on

  the limb of a tree. Screaming and chattering, he bore it proudly down to

  the Captain, and Samuel was so pleased with the curious little creature

  that when Nikobo suggested going back, he made no serious objection. And as

  the hippopotamus, rather weary from her long swim, headed thankfully back

  for the ship, Tandy and Samuel made ambitious plans for the monkey fish's

  care and comfort. Thrusting it into Tandy's bird cage, Samuel regarded it

  with increasing enthusiasm and interest. "I'll rig up a wooden tree in one

  of the aquariums, set the aquarium in one of the large cages so it'll have

  both air and water, and call it `Roger' after its discoverer," beamed the

  former Pirate with a wink at Tandy.

 "Don't you dare call that monkey fish after me," screeched the Read Bird,

  flying round to have another look at his strange prize. "Why, it's uglier

  than a blue monkey. Looks like a regular goblin, if you ask me." And to

  tell the truth, the monkey fish was even uglier than a goblin, shaped

  like a monkey but scaled all over and with unpleasant goggly eyes and three

  short spikes sticking out of its forehead.

 "It does look like a goblin," agreed Tandy with an amused sniff. "But let's

  call it Mo-fi, which is short for fish and monkey."

 "Tip tops'ls!" approved Samuel Salt, taking out his notebook. "Wonder what

  it eats?"

 "Great grandmothers, what would it eat?" moaned Ato, looking blankly at

  Samuel. "Another mouth to feed and listen to! Dear, Dear and DEAR!"

 "Oh, give it a box of animal crackers," put in Roger carelessly.

 "No, I brought along some goldfish food for just such an emergency as this,"

  declared Samuel, making a little flourish with his pencil as he wrote

  busily in his journal. "Goldfish food will be splendid for a monkey fish."

 "Well, don't forget the bananas, for remember, it's a monkey, too," chirped

  Roger, settling on the Captain's shoulder to read what he had written. So,

  laughing and joking and in the highest good humor, the exploring party

  returned to the Crescent Moon. What with planting the slips from the

  sea tree, settling Mo-fi in his aquarium cage, pressing the leaves from the

  marine forest, and making copies and further notes about the sea lions in

  his journal, Samuel did not get his ship under way till late afternoon.

  Ramming into the sea tree, beyond scraping off some paint, had done little

  damage, so singing boisterously, Samuel finally heaved up his anchor. And

  soon, with Ato stirring up a huge clam chowder, Tandy painting the sea

  forest on the chart, and Roger scouring the hold for Mo-fi's fish food, the

  Crescent Moon again dipped adventurously into the southeast swell.

 CHAPTER 14

 THE SEA UNICORN!

 "Ahoy! And how goes it with the able-bodied seaman?" called Roger, swooping

  down from the foremast. Tandy, polishing the brass trim on the binnacle,

  looked up with a welcoming grin.

 "Tip topsails!" he answered, pausing a minute to stare off toward the

  skyline to see whether any islands or sea serpents were visible.

 "And look at that muscle, now," marveled Roger, touching Tandy's arm

  admiringly with his claw. "You're twice the lad you were, Mate, and I'll

  wager my last feather you can lay any lubber by the heels. If anyone gets

  fresh-water ashore, remember you're a salt seagoing sailor and you just

  take a poke at him. That's my advice without any charge or obligation. But

  then again, a chap that's a King, the Royal Artist of an exploring

  expedition, with a sea forest named after him, might not need to take any

  advice at all," added Roger with a long and knowing wink.

 "But I like you to tell me things," said Tandy, looking earnestly up at the

  Read Bird. "You make everything seem so interesting and jolly." With a

  secret smile, for Tandy was thinking how much he would enjoy taking a poke

  at Didjabo, the Chief Ozamandarin, the little boy went on with his

  polishing. If Didjabo said anything further about shutting him up in the

  Tower, he just plain would take a poke at him. But saying nothing of all

  this to Roger, he called up cheerfully, "How's Mo-fi? Has he stopped

  scolding and begun to eat?"

 Roger, who was running races with himself up and down the taffrail, stopped

  short and held up his claw. "Everything I give him," he told Tandy

  solemnly. "And I declare to badness he's getting to know me, Mate. He only

  pulled out three feathers instead of a fistful when I gave him breakfast

  just now. Before long he'll be so tame he'll be riding around on your

  shoulder."

 "Not MY shoulder," laughed Tandy, waving his bottle of polish at the Read

  Bird. "Goodness, I believe you're growing fond of that monkey fish, Roger."

 "Well, why not?" retorted the Read Bird, puffing up his chest. "Ato has me,

  the Captain has Sally, you have Kobo, so why shouldn't I have a little pet

  if I want one?"

 The monkey fish seemed such a strange, prickly sort of pet that Tandy could

  hardly keep his face straight, but seeing Roger was quite in earnest, he

  tactfully changed the subject. "Do you suppose we'll make any new

  discoveries today?" he asked, screwing the cap on the bottle of polish.

  "Any as important as the sea forest, I mean?"

 "Why not call it by its proper name?" teased Roger, scratching his head with

  his left claw. "And I think it most unlikely we'll strike anything as

  curious and important as Tazander Forest. Two discoveries like that just

  couldn't happen two days running. Still, I'll just fly up to the main truck

  and have a look around."

 "Main truck?" Tandy wrinkled up his brows. "I thought I knew all the parts

  of this ship by now. You never told me about the main truck, Roger."

 "Just the top of the main mast, Brainless." Giving Tandy an affectionate

  little shove, Roger soared into the rigging, and Tandy went joyfully off to

  have another look at the forest Samuel had insisted on naming after him. He

  had taken great pains with the painting and printing when he sketched it on

  the map, and now with a sigh of complete satisfaction he stood regarding

  the sea chart. Then, suddenly remembering he had promised to water Samuel

  Salt's plants, he jog-trotted contentedly down to the hold. The tumbleweeds

  in their small red pots grew so rapidly, Samuel had to cut them back every

  day. These Tandy watered very sparingly, snapping his fingers at Mo-fi, who

  was gravely chinning himself on a branch of his artificial tree. The slips

  of the sea trees in their covered aquarium required no attention at all.

  Ato had planted all the vegetable and fruit vines from Peakenspire on the

  rail outside the galley, so that left only the creeping vines from

  Patrippany Island to care for. He had just picked up one of the small

  potted creepers when a sharp rap tap under his toes made Tandy leap

  straight up in the air. Someone was knocking on the bottom of the boat.

 "Ato! Captain! ROGER!" shrilled the little boy, scurrying up from the hold

  faster than he had ever done before. "Su-su-SOMEBODY'S knocking on the

  bottom of the boat." Before he could explain or tell them anything further,

  a perfectly terrific knock from below made the Crescent Moon shiver

  from end to end. Samuel and Ato, leaning over the port rail, turned round

  so suddenly, they bumped their heads smartly together. Next, with a scrape,

  screech and splintering of timber, a giant white horn came tearing up

  through the decks.

 "Whale! Whale!" croaked Roger, falling off the main truck and coasting

  crazily down to the deck. "Wha-what ever 'n ever's that?" he quavered,

  pointing a trembling claw at the rigid white column between the main and

  mizzen masts. Samuel did not even try to explain, for at that instant the

  ship began to rise, to fall, to lash and plunge both up and down and east

  and west. Hooking his arms through the rail, Tandy blinked, gasped and

  shudderingly waited for the Crescent Moon to fly asunder.

 "Narwhal, Mates!" panted Samuel Salt, throwing himself bodily upon the

  wheel. "Horn like aC4unicornC4branch of the Odontocetes andFF20C4"

 "Oh C4 you C4 don't C4 say C4 it C4 is!" chattered Ato, who was lying

  on his stomach bouncing up and down like a ball at each frightful lunge of

  the monstrous fish. "Well, it's spiked us. Is that a horn or a ship's mast?

  Oh woe, oh! What'n salt'll we do now?"

 Samuel had not the heart to answer, for he had all he could do to hang on to

  the wheel as the ship, like a wounded animal, reared and plunged, thrashing

  the sea to a fury of foam and spray. Nikobo, diving precipitously off her

  raft, began to squeal in high and low hippopotamy, making brave but

  ineffective lunges at the lashing giant beneath the ship.

 "Su-suppose it su-submerges?" wailed Ato, who had managed at last to seize a

  rope from the end of which he banged and slammed continuously up and down

  against the deck. "Oh, my stars! Oh, my spars! Oh, my beams andFF20C4"

  Tandy never heard Ato's last anguished cry, for at that moment a savage

  shake of the Narwhal's head sent him flying into the sea. Coming up

  coughing and choking, Tandy instinctively began to swim and for the first

  time became aware of the creeping vine he still had clutched in one hand.

  And in that instant and in that whirl of danger, disaster and destruction,

  the little boy suddenly grew calm and purposeful. This vine C4 Well, why

  would this powerful vine from Patrippany Island not work as well under

  water as on land? The chances were that it would. Swimming boldly back to

  the ship, Tandy took a quick dive, hurling the vine, pot and all, in the

  general direction of the Narwhal. No sooner had the vine touched the water

  than it began to open, creep and grow, and spraying out a hundred strong

  tentacles, it seized and bound the plunging monster in a secure and inescap

 able cradle of leafy wood.

 Gasping and sputtering but with his heart pounding with joy to think he had

  really saved Samuel's beautiful ship, Tandy rose to the surface. Nikobo,

  letting off shrill blasts of anger and fright, came paddling anxiously

  toward him. But giving the hippopotamus a reassuring wave, Tandy seized the

  end of a rope ladder and pulled himself up to the deck. Samuel, though

  battered and bruised, still clung to the wheel, and Ato, almost pounded to

  a jelly, had rolled into the scuppers where Roger was fanning him

  vigorously with a butter paddle. The Read Bird, having wings, could have

  left the ship at any time, but had clung bravely to his post, preferring to

  go down with the ship and his shipmates. Now all three of them stared in

  dazed silence at Tandy as he climbed back over the rail, for in the

  terrible confusion and excitement, no one had seen him go overboard.

 "Tandy! Tandy! Where've you been?" With outstretched arms, Samuel Salt

  rushed groggily forward. "Shiver my liver! Why's everything so quiet? Could

  it be that you single-handedly have destroyed that ship-shaking menace?"

 "I don't think he's destroyed, Master Salt," answered Tandy, limping happily

  to meet the Captain, "but he's caught fast as a lobster in a lobster pot

  and can't move at all."

 "Caught?" rasped Samuel, running across the deck to peer over the rail.

 "By the creeping vine," explained Tandy, and in short, breathless sentences

  he told them all that had happened after he was flung into the sea.

 "Well, bagpipe my mizzenmain sails!" gasped Samuel Salt, staring at Tandy

  with round eyes. "This is the strangest and happiest day of my life. You've

  saved the ship and the whole expedition, my boy, and all we have to do now

  is cut loose from this cavorting unicorn of the sea and sail off with the

  largest ivory horn in captivity. An ivory mast, blast my buckles! Wait till

  the Ozites see us sailing up the Winkie River with four masts instead of

  three! Ahoy, below! Ahoy, Kobo! Can you dive with me beneath this ship?"

 "Dive and stay under as long as you can," vowed the hippopotamus, shaking

  the water out of her eyes and looking cheerily up at the Captain. "You see,

  I was right about those creeping vines, now wasn't I?" Nikobo, having done

  a little investigating on her own account, was well nigh ready to burst

  with pride at Tandy's quick action and the way in which the vines had

  overcome their gigantic foe.

 "RIGHT!" boomed Samuel Salt, hurrying off for his oxygen helmet and powerful

  diamond-toothed saw. Ato was too bruised and exhausted to rise, but Tandy

  and Roger, perching on the ship's rail, watched Samuel in his queer diver's

  helmet climb down the rope ladder and clamber up on the hippopotamus. Next

  minute Nikobo had disappeared under the surface, and presently from the

  slight shiver and shake of the boat they knew that Samuel was determinedly

  at work cutting them loose. Fortunately, there was room between the ship's

  bottom and the whale's head for Nikobo to swim about, and so splintering

  sharp was Samuel's saw that in less than five minutes he had cut off the

  great column of ivory level with the ship's bottom, carefully caulking the

  edges with material he had brought down.

 In its tight and live wood crate, the Narwhal could not stir an inch, and

  while the cutting of its horn was not painful, it blubbered and spouted so

  terrifically that Samuel and Nikobo heaved tremendous sighs of relief when

  the dangerous operation was accomplished. Backing off a few paces, Nikobo

  began butting the crated sea beast with her head till she had driven it out

  from beneath the boat. Roger and Tandy, with little shrieks of wonder and

  excitement, saw the crated fish, like some queer and monstrous mummy, rise

  to the surface and go floating sullenly away toward the east. Now that they

  had a full view of the Narwhal, they saw that it was three times the length

  of the Crescent Moon.

 "A great wonder Sammy didn't tie it to the ship and tow it along," sighed

  Ato, who had at last got to his feet and draped himself weakly over the

  rail. "Some fishin', eh Mates?"

 "But look at the beautiful mast we have!" cried Tandy, waving to Nikobo and

  the Captain as they came cheerfully alongside.

 "Huh! You're as bad as Sammy," grunted Ato, rubbing his bruises sorrowfully.

  "And of course a mast was just what we were needing! Whale of a mast! Mast

  of a whale! HUH!"

 CHAPTER 15

 THE COLLECTOR IS COLLECTED

 "What are you going to call this one?" inquired Tandy next morning as he and

  Samuel squinted thoughtfully up at the gleaming ivory column between the

  main and mizzenmasts.

 "Might call it the whalemast," said Samuel, rubbing his chin reflectively.

  "And it's a lucky thing for us the point was sharp enough to cut through

  the decks without damaging the ship. At any rate, it's given us the biggest

  fish story a voyager ever had to relate. Tossed on the horns of a Narwhal!

  And the best part of the whole story is that we have the proof right along

  with us. Hah! Right here!" Samuel in his glee and exuberance gave the

  whalemast a hearty slap.

 "Kobo says that vine won't unwind for a couple of days, but anyway it'll be

  a fine rest for the whale floating around without having to swim. And I

  expect it can grow another horn."

 "I expect so," agreed Samuel, winking down at Sally, who was standing on her

  head in the bowl of his pipe. "If this little Lady would just talk, she

  could give us a heap of valuable information about life in Lavaland, Mate."

 "Roger's taught Mo-fi to say `Ship ahoy!'FF20" observed Tandy, strolling

  over to the rail to watch the white foam sweep past the ship's side. "And

  your sea tree sprays have grown an inch since yesterday, Captain."

 "They have?" Samuel blew three rings from his pipe, then walked aft to

  glance at the compass. "Well, my boy, if the rest of the voyage is as good

  as the beginning, we'll sail home loaded to the gun'ls." The mention of

  home always made Tandy wince, for the Crescent Moon was the first real

  home he had known. To think that he would be put ashore in Ozamaland while

  Samuel's ship would continue its adventurous voyage of discovery without

  him was a fact almost too terrible to consider.

 "Maybe we'll never come to Ozamaland at all," mused Tandy as he climbed into

  the rigging to join Roger. "Maybe the Captain's reckoning is wrong and

  Ozamaland is to the north instead of the south." Vastly comforted by this

  idea, Tandy swung nimbly to the crosstree on the fore t'gallant mast. Roger

  was staring intently through Ato's telescope, and as Tandy squirmed along

  to a position beside him, the Read Bird let out a shrill squall, all his

  head feathers standing straight on end.

 "What do you see? What is it?" cried the little King, shading his eyes with

  his hands and staring in all directions. "I can't see a thing."

 "Take the glasses," urged Roger, handing them over with a frightened gulp.

  "Take the glasses and then tell me it isn't so." Tandy, scarcely knowing

  what to expect, screwed his eye close to the telescope, then he, too, gave

  a shriek of consternation.

 "Why, it's a big HOLE, a HOLE in the sea!" he stuttered, lowering the

  glasses and staring at the Read Bird in blank dismay.

 "Exactly!" croaked the Read Bird, "and whoever heard of such a thing? A hole

  in the ground, certainly, but a hole in the sea? Why, that's just plain

  past believing. Ahoy, DECK AHOY!" Wagging his head, Roger lifted his voice

  in a long warning wail. "Heave to, Master Salt! Heave to! Danger on the

  bow!"

 Somewhat surprised, but without stopping to question Roger, in whom he had

  the utmost confidence, Samuel hove his vessel to. And not a moment too

  soon, for barely a ship's length away yawned an immense and unexplainable

  hole in the sea. Round its edges the waves frothed, tossed and bubbled,

  making no impression on that quiet, curious vacuum of air. Crowding into

  the bow, the ship's company stared down in complete wonder and

  mystification. "Now, goosewing my topsails, this'll bear looking into!"

  puffed Samuel, breaking the silence at last.

 "Now, now, NOW!" Ato snatched wildly at Samuel's coattails as he raced aft,

  bellowing loudly for Kobo to come alongside. "You'll not go a step off this

  boat. We can sail round this air hole and no damage is done, but as for

  looking into it! Help, HELP! Avast and belay and I'll knock eight bells out

  of anyone who leaves this ship!" Seizing an iron belaying pin, Ato made a

  desperate rush after Samuel Salt, and failing to catch him before he slid

  down the cable to Kobo's raft, he grabbed Tandy firmly and angrily by the

  seat of the pants. "Not a step!" panted the ship's cook savagely. "Not a

  step! Roger! Roger! Come back here this instant."

 But Roger, with a screech of defiance, had already flown down after Samuel.

  Tandy, pinned against the rail by Ato's two hundred and fifty pounds, was

  forced to watch Nikobo, with Roger and Samuel on her back, moving

  cautiously toward the edge of the air hole. Over his shoulder, Samuel had a

  huge coil of rope, the end of which he had attached to the capstan of the

  boat before he dropped over the side. "Oh! Oh! And OH!" wheezed the ship's

  cook. "If Sammy goes down that cavern we're as good as lost. No one to

  navigate, to up sail or down sail or lay to in a storm. My, my and MY

  land!"

 "Well, there he goes!" cried Tandy as Samuel flung the rope down in to the

  sea hole. "Don't worry, Ato, he's always come back before, hasn't he? Let

  me go! Let me go, I tell you!" With a sudden jerk, Tandy tore out of Ato's

  grasp, climbed up on the rail, and dove into the sea. Swimming rapidly

  toward the hippopotamus, he climbed on her back, and with Roger fluttering

  in excited circles overhead Nikobo swam as close to the edge of the sea

  hole as she dared, watching in terrified fascination as Samuel calmly

  lowered himself into the clouded blue depths. With mingled feelings of

  interest and alarm, Tandy saw the Royal Explorer of Oz go down lower and

  lower and finally disappear altogether into the deep blue air below. Now

  not a glimpse of Samuel was visible and not a sound came up to reassure

  them that he was still there.

 "I'll just fly down and see what's up," quavered Roger, and in spite of the

  loud shouts and threats of Ato on the Crescent Moon, the Read Bird

  spread his wings and coasted slowly and bravely into the immense air shaft.

  Nikobo, now as alarmed as the ship's cook, began swimming frantically round

  the edge of the misty chasm, letting out piercing blasts that sounded like

  nothing so much as a ferryboat whistle. Tandy himself felt uneasy and

  frightened, and Ato, unable to bear the suspense any longer, climbed over

  the side and came swimming out to join them. After an endless fifteen

  minutes during which dreadful fear and premonition gripped the watchers,

  the head of the Read Bird popped mournfully into view.

 "Is he all right? Where's Sammy? What in soup's he doing? What'd you find

  out?" gasped Ato, reaching out to clutch Roger by the wing. Roger, limp and

  bedraggled, with all the stiffness out of his feathers, said nothing for a

  whole minute.

 Then, beating his wings together, he began to scream out hoarsely, "The

  Captain's caught! The Collector's collected. They have Master Salt forty

  fathoms below. They've got him shut up, I mean down at the bottom of the

  sea like a goldfish in a bowl, only he's in a big bowl of air. They're

  poking little fish and crabs through a trap door in the air shaft, and I

  cannot break or even make a dent in the transparent slide they've shot

  across the air hole to shut him off from us. And oh, my bill and feathers!

  Every time they open the trap door to shove things in to him, water rushes

  into the vacuum. He's standing in water to his knees now, and unless we can

  break a hole in that lid, the Captain's done for C4 done for, do you

  hear?"

 "They?" asked Tandy, while Nikobo's eyes almost popped out of her head. "Who

  do you mean?"

 "Oh, oh, don't ASK me!" choked the poor Read Bird. "They're not fish and

  they're not men. They're about the size of Tandy, here, sort of stiff and

  jellied and perfectly transparent. On a shell hanging outside of one of

  their caves it said `Seeweegia.'FF20"

 "Seeweegia!" moaned Ato, clutching his head in both hands. "Let me see! Let

  me see! What's to be done, boys? Now quick! What's to be done?"

 "Have Roger fetch the saw we used on the whale's horn," gurgled Nikobo.

 "And I'll climb down and saw a hole in that slide," cried Tandy eagerly.

 "No, I'll climb down," said Ato firmly. "I've known Sammy the longest,

  and if he's going to come to a watery end I might as well end with him."

  Leaving the two arguing, Roger flashed back to the ship, returning in

  almost no time with the scintillating and powerful saw. Tandy had meanwhile

  convinced Ato that he could climb down the rope faster, being so much

  lighter, and now, with tears in their eyes, Nikobo and the ship's cook saw

  Tandy and Roger disappear into the air shaft.

 Tandy let himself down carefully hand over hand, Roger keeping abreast of

  him with the saw. To slide rapidly to the bottom would have been quicker,

  but the resulting blisters would make it difficult to use the saw. Forty

  fathoms, nearly two hundred and forty feet, is a long way to go hand over

  hand on a rope, and before he reached the glass-like slide, Tandy's palms

  stung and his shoulders ached and burned from the strain.

 But at last he was down, and dropping to his hands and knees with Roger

  mourning and muttering beside him, Tandy peered fearfully through the

  glassy substance. For a moment everything was a green and misty blur, but

  gradually the figure of Samuel Salt standing sturdily in the middle of the

  air bowl became visible. Although waist high in sea water and surrounded by

  loathsome sea creatures and crabs the Seeweegians had tossed in for him to

  eat, Samuel was making slow and interested entries in his journal.

 Pressed against the sides of his strange aquarium, Tandy could see the

  round, square and triangular faces of the jellyfish men and women.

  Brilliantly colored vines and seaweed waved and tossed in the current. The

  floor of the ocean was covered with bright shells, polished stones and all

  manner of sparkling deep-sea jewels. Had Tandy not been so worried about

  Samuel Salt, he would have liked nothing better than sketching this strange

  and beautiful undersea Kingdom with the Seeweegians flopping and swimming

  busily in and out of their grottoes and caves, or disporting themselves in

  the seaweed forests. But as it was, his only thought was of quickly freeing

  the Captain of the Crescent Moon from his curious prison.

 "Look, they've put up a sign," hissed Roger, handing over the saw. Looking

  in the direction indicated by Roger, Tandy saw an immense shell on which

  long wisps of seaweed had been arranged to form the words:

 COME SEE THE CURIOUS HIGH AIR MANSTER.

 ADMISSION, 1 PEARL, 5 CORALS AND A CLAM.

 The sight of this sign swinging from a small sea tree close to Samuel's air

  bowl sent a wave of rage up Tandy's back. Rubbing his palms briskly

  together, the little boy seized the saw and struck it with all his might

  against the unyielding surface of the slide. The noise attracted Samuel's

  attention, and looking up he began waving his arms, yelling out wild orders

  and commands. Not being able to hear any of them and being quite sure

  Samuel was telling them to leave the air shaft before the Seeweegians shot

  another slide over their heads and caught them, too, Tandy proceeded grimly

  with his task.

 Roger helped, scraping away with both claws and bill. For five desperate

  minutes they worked without success, then a tiny crack split the slide from

  edge to edge. Wedging the saw into the narrow opening, Tandy began sawing

  away like a little wild man, for a fresh batch of snails and crabs tossed

  into Samuel had let in another rush of sea water. Immersed to his chin,

  Samuel started to swim round and round, dodging the end of the saw as it

  flashed up and down above his head.

 "Oh!" gasped Tandy, stopping a moment to blow on his fingers. "I'll never be

  able to make this opening large enough. Look, look, Roger, they're opening

  that trap door again. Oh, oh! I can't bear it!"

 "Help! Help!" yelled the Read Bird, looking despairingly up the empty air

  shaft. "Help, for the love of sea salt and sailor men!" His cry, increased

  by the curious nature of the compressed air in the air shaft, increased a

  hundredfold and fell with a hideous roar upon the anguished ears of Ato and

  Nikobo. Almost instinctively and without thought of her own safety or Ato's

  or the dire consequences, the hippopotamus jumped bodily into the sea hole.

  Roger, still glaring upward, had a quick flash of an immense falling

  object.

 Realizing at once what had happened, the Read Bird had just time to snatch

  Tandy and drag him to the opposite side of the slide before Nikobo landed,

  broke through the thick glass, plunged into Samuel's aquarium and shot out

  through the side into a group of horrified Seeweegians. Now do not suppose

  for an instant that Tandy, Roger or Samuel himself saw all this happen.

  Indeed, after Nikobo struck the slide, none of them remembered a thing, for

  the ocean, rushing in through the puncture the hippopotamus had made in the

  vacuum, rose like a tidal wave, carrying them tumultuously along.

 Nikobo came up at a little distance from the others, with Ato, completely

  wrapped and entangled in seaweed, clinging tenaciously to her harness and

  looking like some queer marine specimen himself. Too shocked and stunned to

  swim, the five shipmates bobbed up and down like corks on the surface of

  the sea. Then Roger, spreading his wet and bedraggled wings and coughing

  violently from all the salt water he had swallowed, started dizzily back to

  the Crescent Moon. Nikobo had several long gashes in her tough hide,

  but still managed to grin at Tandy. "I C4 I must have lost the saw,"

  panted the little boy, pulling himself wearily up on her back.

 "Never mind the saw. I still have my journal, and look what I caught!"

  puffed Samuel Salt, dragging himself up on the other side of the

  hippopotamus. "Ship ahoy, Mates, a live and perfect specimen of a jellyfish

  boy." Holding up his prize, Samuel smiled blandly, all his danger and

  discomfort apparently forgotten.

 "Oh, my eyes, ears and whiskers!" quavered Ato, peering out of his net of

  seaweed. "Is it for this we've been scraping our noses on the sea bottom?"

  Nodding cheerfully, Samuel plunged the squirming and transparent little

  water boy under the surface, holding him there as Nikobo swam slowly and

  painfully back to the ship.

 CHAPTER 16

 THE STORM!

 Tandy was so exhausted from his dreadful experiences at the bottom of the

  sea hole he spent the rest of the morning flat on his stomach on deck

  making lively sketches from memory of the City of Seeweegia. Of the sea

  hole itself not a sign nor vestige remained. The sea, tumbling through the

  breach made by Nikobo, had closed it up forever and ever. Ato had Roger

  fetch bandages and witch hazel down to the raft, and it took him two hours

  to bind up the cuts and hurts of the faithful hippopotamus. Then, climbing

  wearily up the rope ladder to the deck, he spent another hour rubbing

  himself with oil and liniment, muttering darkly about reckless collectors

  who got themselves and their shipmates collected.

 "What would WE have done if you'd never got out of that air bowl?" scolded

  Ato, waving the bottle of liniment at the Captain, who was cheerfully

  changing into dry clothes. "You know I know nothing about

  navigation, nor one sail from t'other."

 "Ah, but what you know about sauces!" retorted Samuel, rolling his eyes

  rapturously. "Of course, I'll grant a ship cannot sail on its stomach, but

  if the worst had come to the worst, you could have left a note for the

  sails on the binnacle. `If it comes up a blow, tie yourselves up.' Ha, ha!

  Tie yourselves UP!" Jamming his feet into his boots, Samuel blew a kiss to

  his still muttering shipmate and tramped down to the hold to settle his jel

 lyfish boy in one of the large aquariums.

 The water boy, about half the size of Tandy, was a jolly enough looking

  specimen, but kept opening and shutting his mouth like a fish and staring

  anxiously from his captor to Mo-fi in the cage opposite. Whistling happily

  and unmindful of the cuts and bruises he had suffered, Samuel filled the

  bottom of the aquarium with pebbles and shells, put in several seaweed

  plants he'd fished up in the nets, and soon had the little stranger as

  happy and cozy as a clam. Giving him and Mo-fi a wafer of fish food, the

  Royal Explorer of Oz went above to have a look at the weather, for he did

  not like the way the ship was pitching.

 In spite of the desperately fatiguing morning they had had, it seemed the

  voyagers were in for some further excitement. The sky had grown dark and

  threatening. Dark clouds in ever-increasing numbers scudded along from the

  east; the sea, rough and angry, was full of racing little whitecaps.

  Nikobo's raft plunged and rocketed up and down like a bucking bronco,

  flinging the hippopotamus from side to side and bringing her with squealing

  protests up against the rail first on one side and then on the other.

 Fearing for her safety, Samuel with Tandy's help rigged a temporary derrick

  to the mizzenmast, hove his vessel to, and bidding Nikobo swim round to the

  side, cleverly hoisted her to the main deck by a hook caught through her

  harness. Nikobo took it all quite calmly, coming down with a thankful

  little grunt, glad to be with her shipmates in the gale that was lashing

  the sea into a rolling, tossing fury of mounting gray water and foam.

 The wind had risen now almost to hurricane proportions, and taking in all

  sail and with only a tarpaulin lashed in the main rigging, Samuel prepared

  with bared poles to ride out the storm. Ato, always ready and helpful in a

  crisis, trudged up and down the heaving decks with pails of hot soup and

  coffee, and after a hasty lunch, all hands fell to closing ports, battening

  hatches and removing from the decks all loose gear and equipment. As it was

  impossible to shove Nikobo through the door of the main cabin, Samuel

  lashed her tightly to the mizzenmast, and with an old sail round her

  shoulders the hippopotamus anxiously watched the mountainous waves breaking

  over the bow and running down into the scuppers.

 It was all so wild and new, so dangerous and exciting, Tandy begged Samuel

  to let him stay on deck. Much against his better judgment, Samuel finally

  gave his consent, tying Tandy fast to Nikobo and the mizzenmast. If

  anything happened to the ship, reflected Samuel, fighting his way back to

  the wheel, the hippopotamus could keep Tandy afloat and take care of him

  besides.

 Ato and Roger, not being needed on deck and not caring for storms, shut

  themselves up in the main cabin for a game of checkers. But checkers and

  board soon flew through the air, and the two had all they could do to hang

  on to their chairs as the Crescent Moon pitched headlong into the

  cavernous hollows and struggled up the mountainous ridges of the great

  running seas.

 CHAPTER 17

 THE OLD MAN OF THE JUNGLE!

 In the splendid white marble Palace in the splendid White City of Ozamaland,

  the nine Ozamandarins sat in solemn conference.

 "This time we have succeeded," stated Didjabo, chief of the nine Judges of

  the realm. "This time we have succeeded, and our plans may now be

  accomplished. Last time, we merely destroyed the King and Queen, neglecting

  to do away with the Royal Offspring, Tazander Tazah, and for that reason we

  failed utterly. So long as this boy survived, the natives insisted on

  considering him their rightful King and Ruler. But, hah! That prophecy we

  invented about an aunt carrying him off was a clever and useful idea, eh my

  fellow Zamians? Now as the child, with a little help on our part it must be

  confessed, has really been carried off and destroyed, we can blame these

  same silly females, and they and all the royal family can be tossed into

  the sea to pay for this heinous crime. Ha, ha! Quite an idea, a famous

  idea!" murmured Didjabo, and the eight Ozamandarins nodded their narrow

  heads in complete and satisfied agreement. "Leaving the throne clear for

  us, the Nine Faithful Servants of the People!" Again the Ozamandarins

  nodded, but Didjabo, slanting his cruel little eyes up and down the long

  table, was already making plans to destroy the lot of them and have the

  whole great country for himself.

 "But how can we be sure the boy is destroyed and out of the way?" questioned

  Lotho, the second Ozamandarin in point of rank and power.

 "Because," Didjabo curled up his lip in a hard little smile, "the Old Man of

  the Jungle has brought us proof. Boglodore! BOGLODORE! It is our wish that

  you appear before us."

 At Didjabo's call there was a slight rustle and stir behind the curtains in

  the doorway, and an immense, wrinkled old native clad only in a turban and

  loin cloth stepped noiselessly into the Chamber of Justice. Without waiting

  for further orders, Boglodore began in a high, dismal, droning voice:

  "Following the commands of the highest among you, I, Boglodore the

  Magician, did carry off on my famous, never-known or seen flying

  umbrellaphant, the heir and small King of this country, coming down after

  two days on Patrippany Island.

 "Not wishing to destroy the boy with my own hands, I left him to the wild

  beasts and savage Leopard Men known to inhabit this island. That, as you

  know, was five months and two weeks ago. Having just returned from a second

  flight to the Island, where I found no trace or sign of the boy, I can

  safely assure you that he is no more, that he has undoubtedly been killed

  by the savages or the wild beasts of the jungle." There was not a trace of

  pity or remorse on the cruel, flat faces of his listeners as Boglodore

  finished this shameful recital.

 "In that case, there is nothing left to do but punish the royal aunts and

  family, issue a proclamation of our accession to power, and divide up the

  Kingdom," mused Lotho, drumming thoughtfully on the table with his long,

  skinny fingers.

 "But do not forget my reward," wheezed Boglodore firmly. "For this cruel and

  infamous deed I was promised one tenth of Ozamaland, and I am here to claim

  as my share the entire jungle reach of this country." Extending his arms,

  the old man of the jungle advanced threateningly toward the long table.

 "Ha, ha! Just listen to him now," sneered Didjabo, gathering up his papers

  and looking insolently across at the angry native. "Have a care what you

  say, fellow. Too much of this and you'll go over the cliff with the royal

  relatives. Now then, clear out! Your work is done! If you ever set foot in

  this city again, you shall be trampled beneath the feet of the royal

  elephants!"

 "Ah-hhh!" Boglodore recoiled as if he had been confronted by a poisonous

  reptile. "So that's to be the way of it? Aha! Very good! I will go. But do

  not think this is the end! It is but the beginning!" Snapping his fingers

  under the long noses of the Ozamandarins, the old man, not bothering with

  the door, leapt out the window and vanished into the garden.

 "Do you think that was quite wise?" questioned Teebo, third in rank of the

  Ozamandarins. "This fellow and his flying elephant are dangerous and may do

  us a world of harm."

 "Do not forget, anything he says will involve himself, and he'll have a hard

  time proving to the people that it was on my orders the young King was

  carried off."

 "Oh, hush!" warned Lotho, glancing nervously over his shoulder. "Not another

  word!" Shrugging his shoulders and rising to indicate that the meeting was

  over, Didjabo started pompously for the door. "I will go now to prepare a

  Royal Proclamation explaining that as the young King has not after

  exhaustive search been found or located, the authority and governing power

  of the state shall pass to us, the Nine Faithful Ozamandarins of the Realm!

  We can then meet again and here in this star-and-barred Chamber of Justice

  divide the Kingdom among us."

 "Very well, but see that you remember it is to be divided!" Staring fixedly

  at Didjabo, Lotho strode away, colliding violently at the door with a

  small, breathless page who was entering on a veritable gallop.

 "Your Honors! Your Ozamandarin Majesties!" shrilled the boy, wildly waving

  his trumpet instead of blowing upon it. "A ship. There is a ship with four

  masts beneath the chalk cliffs, a strange ship with full sail is riding

  into our harbor."

 "There, there, don't shout!" snapped Didjabo, seizing the boy roughly by the

  shoulders. "Go back at once and discover what flag this ship flies from her

  masthead. Quickly now. RUN!"

 "What could it mean? Where could it be from? Such a thing has never happened

  before!" muttered the others, hastening over to the long windows.

 "Confoundation!" raged Didjabo as the page with frightened stutters turned

  and ran out of the Hall of Justice. "This ruins everything. Who are these

  meddling foreigners? And why do they have to arrive now of all times? NOW!

  Lotho! Teebo! Call out the camel corps and the white elephant guard. Have

  them drawn up in war formation on the chalk cliffs. You others!"

  Impatiently, Didjabo waved his arms at the six remaining Ozamandarins. "See

  to the defense of the palace! If these meddlers set foot upon our

  territory, they are to be trampled upon, trampled upon C4 do you

  understand?"

 Nodding with fierce and cruel determination, the eight tall Keepers of the

  White City set about carrying out Didjabo's orders. Didjabo, hurrying up to

  the highest tower in the castle, looked through his telescope to see what

  manner of ship had come sailing out of the west to spoil or postpone his

  well-laid plans.

 CHAPTER 18

 A NEW COUNTRY

 Driven by the pitiless wind, pounded by the merciless seas, the Crescent

  Moon rode before the gale, coming toward morning into quiet waters at

  last. The sky, now pale grey instead of black, showed a small, single star

  in the east, and with a huge sigh of weariness and relief, Samuel let go

  the anchor and bade his crew turn in all standing. This they were only too

  glad to do, sleeping heavily and thankfully in their clothes, Nikobo still

  wrapped in her sail snoring like a whole band of music beneath the

  mizzenmast.

 Tandy, to whom the storm had been a thrilling adventure, was the first to

  waken. Still stiff and bruised from the pounding he had taken as the

  Crescent Moon tossed and pitched in the terrible seas, he sprang

  eagerly out of his bunk, curious to know where the storm had carried them.

  The morning mists, lifting like a shimmering veil or the curtain of a stage

  on some new and strange scene, showed a long, white line of chalk cliffs to

  the east, and beyond the cliffs the dim outline of a great and splendid

  city.

 With joy and lively expectations Tandy had run out on deck, but now, after a

  long look over the port rail, he crept silently and soberly back to his

  cabin, closing the door softly behind him. Later, as the sun rose higher

  and his shipmates awoke, the excited screams of Nikobo and Roger and the

  eager voices of Samuel and Ato told him that they too had seen the bright

  land beyond the cliffs. Already Samuel was clewing up his sail, and above

  the rattle in the rigging Tandy could hear the rasp of the anchor cable as

  it came winding over the side. But he only bent lower over the fat book in

  his lap, and when the Read Bird, loudly calling his name, came hurtling

  through the porthole, he did not even look up.

 "Land! Land and MORELAND!" croaked Roger, dancing up and down on the foot of

  the bunk. "None of your pesky islands this time, but a whole, long, new

  continent. What in salt's the matter, youngster; this is no time to be

  a-reading! Come on, come on, the Captain's looking for you!" As Roger

  peered sharply down at the book in Tandy's lap, two tears splashed on the

  open page. Quickly brushing two more off his nose, the ship's cabin boy

  unwillingly met the puzzled gaze of the Read Bird.

 "Roger," demanded Tandy in a smothered and unsteady voice, "which is most

  important, being a King or being a person?" Roger, his head on one side,

  considered this for a moment, and then spoke quickly.

 "Well, you can't be a good King without being a good person, so I should say

  being a good person is most important."

 "But it says here," with a furious sniff Tandy put his finger on the middle

  paragraph of the page, "FF20`In no circumstances and for no reason may a

  King forsake his country nor desert his countrymen.'FF20"

 "What's that? What's this? Humph! Maxims for Monarchs. Well, what in

  topsails do we care for that musty volume?" Giving the book a vicious

  shove, Roger, forgetting how much he had formerly praised Ato's fat volume,

  fluttered down on Tandy's shoulder. "So THAT'S it!" he burst out

  explosively. "This pernicious country yonder is Ozamaland. Well, we can't

  spare you, and that's final. They didn't know how to treat a good King when

  they had one, now let 'em practice on somebody else. Say the word, m'lad,

  and we'll put about and sail away as fast as a good ship can take us!

  CAPTAIN! Master Salt! Deck ahoy! All hands 'HOY!" Without waiting for

  Tandy's answer, Roger skimmed through the port and winged over to the

  Captain.

 "Wait! Wait!" sputtered Tandy, hurrying aft where the officers and crew of

  the Crescent Moon were now engaged in earnest conversation. "Don't you

  remember you wanted some of those creeping birds and flying reptiles,

  Captain? Well, this is the place!" puffed the little boy, waving his arm

  toward the cliffs. "This is Ozamaland, and I've got to go ashore. It's

  really all right," he continued earnestly as Samuel began unhappily rubbing

  his chin. "It's been a grand voyage, and I've learned a lot, but a King has

  to stick to his post, hasn't he?"

 "Not all the time," snapped Ato, giving his belt an indignant jerk. "You

  stuck to your post, and they stuck you in a tower and then in a pigpen in

  the jungle. So what do you owe them? Nothing, say I, absolutely nothing!"

 But Samuel Salt, regretful as he was to lose this handy young artist and

  cabin boy, felt that Tandy must decide the matter for himself. "If you're

  as good a King as you are a seaman, I'm not the one to hold you back," he

  sighed sorrowfully. "But just let these lubbers start any more nonsense,

  and I'll give them a taste of the rope. HAH! And we'll not be leaving you

  till everything's shipshape, and you can lay to that!"

 "I'm not leaving you at all," snorted Nikobo, lumbering hugely over to Tandy

  and almost flattening him against the port rail. "I'll miss this ship

  worse'n the river, and Ato's cooking and the Captain's stories and Roger's

  jokes, but wherever Tandy goes I go, and that's flat!"

 "Just plain noddling nonsense, putting him ashore," fumed Ato angrily. "He's

  not old enough to manage these wild tribesmen and scheming aristocrats.

  Besides, we need him on this expedition, and you know it." Samuel, sighing

  deeply, smiled at Tandy, and Tandy, sighing just as deeply, smiled back.

 "Never you mind," promised the former Pirate with a wink that somehow lacked

  conviction, "there'll be other voyages!" And seizing the wheel, he began

  tacking in toward Tandy's homeland. But he had lost all pleasure and

  interest in charting for the first time on any map the long continent of

  Tazara and adding strange animals and plants to his ever-growing

  collection. Losing Tandy spoiled the whole expedition for him, and by

  taking longer and wider tacks he delayed their landing to the latest

  possible moment.

 But at last they were in the very shadow of the chalk cliffs and with no

  further excuse for not going ashore. Nikobo had agreed to carry them and

  had abruptly heaved herself overboard, sending up a fountain of spray as

  high as the ship itself when she struck the water, thus astonishing no end

  the watchers on the bank. Tandy, after running down to the hold to say

  goodbye to Mo-fi and have a last look at the jellyfish boy, regretfully

  joined the others at the port rail.

 Having brought nothing aboard the Crescent Moon, he insisted on leaving

  in the same way, soberly waving aside all the gifts and presents Ato and

  Samuel sought to press upon him. Clad only in the leopard skin he had worn

  on Patrippany Island, he swung nimbly down the rope ladder. The Captain and

  the cook, in honor of Tandy's homecoming, had donned their finest

  shore-going togs, and Samuel, with a scimitar in his teeth, and Ato, armed

  as usual with his bread knife and a package he refused to explain, followed

  him more slowly down the ladder. Then they all climbed aboard the

  hippopotamus.

 Roger, flying ahead with some Oz flags just for luck, could not help

  comparing the brown, hard-muscled young seaman with the skinny, fretful boy

  they had taken on at Patrippany Island. Trying to comfort himself with

  Tandy's improved health and spirits, he looked curiously at the great

  company assembled on the cliffs. All of the Nobles and their families in

  flowing white robes were present, and many of the turbanned tribesmen who

  happened to be in the capital had gathered to see for themselves the first

  ship that had ever touched the shore of Ozamaland. Beyond the Nobles and

  natives, Roger could see row on row of white guards mounted on enormous

  white elephants and snow-white camels.

 "Trouble, trouble, nothing but trouble!" snorted the Read Bird drearily to

  himself. Tandy, familiar with the whole coast, guided Nikobo to the only

  possible spot for landing, and grunting and mumbling the hippopotamus

  hauled herself up on the rocks, glancing sharply and suspiciously at the

  little boy's subjects. A narrow path wound and curved up through the

  cliffs, and puffing and panting Nikobo finally made her way to the top,

  where she stood uncertainly facing the milling multitude.

 "Hail and greetings!" called Samuel Salt, raising his arm to attract their

  attention, for the crowd looked both dangerous and unfriendly. "We are here

  to return to you safe and sound your lost King, Tazander Tazah, rescued by

  us from the wild jungle of Patrippany Island."

 "King? King?" shrilled a dozen shrill and unbelieving voices. "Where?

  Where?" And everyone craned his neck to get a better view of Nikobo and her

  three curious riders. "Is it really our lost and stolen Kinglet?"

 "Yes!" cried Tandy, springing erect. "I am Tazander Tazah, King's son and

  son of a King's son. You are my lawful subjects, and Ozamaland is my

  Kingdom!" A little shiver of excitement ran through the crowd at these

  words.

 "He does in truth resemble our young ruler," murmured one Noble to another,

  "though much stronger and more bold." Drawing a long sword, he waved it

  imperiously above his head. "Summon the Ozamandarins," he called loudly.

  "They will decide whether this be our King or some small Imposter, and

  DEATH to all strangers and enemies who come in ships to lay waste our

  realm."

 "Oh, hold your tongue!" advised Ato, settling himself more comfortably

  between Nikobo's shoulders. "Who are you to challenge the Royal Explorer of

  Oz, the King of the Octagon IsleFF20C4"

 "And his Royal Read Bird," piped Roger, flying savagely round and round the

  head of the speaker.

 "Yes, who are you to challenge the rightful ruler of Ozamaland?" cried

  Tandy, folding his arms and gazing calmly out over the curious throng.

 "Hi, is this the young slip they kept locked in the tower? Hoo, hoo!" yelled

  an old tribesman, brandishing his long lance. "He's the salt of the sea and

  the sand of the desert. Shame on you, Zamon, not to recognize and welcome

  your young King. I'm for you, young one, down to my last breath!"20

 In spite of these brave words, the nobles, natives and guards made no move

  or motion to let Nikobo pass through. Then suddenly there was a break in

  the crowd, and the nine square-hatted Ozamandarins stepped rigidly forward.

  And nine taller, thinner, meaner-visaged rogues, decided Samuel, lovingly

  fingering his scimitar, it had never been his misfortune to encounter.

  Didjabo, recognizing Tandy at once in spite of his new and seamanlike beari

 ng, was the first to speak.

 "The blessing of the stars, moon and sun upon you!" cried the wily chief,

  bowing rapidly ten times in succession. "And upon these strangers who have

  brought you safely back to these shores! Welcome, most welcome, small King

  and ruler of the Ozamanders!" Speaking calmly but with black fury in his

  heart to have his plans so unexpectedly thwarted, Didjabo advanced rapidly

  toward Nikobo. "And now that you are here and really safe, we must see that

  you are locked securely in the White Tower of the Wise Man away from all

  future hurt and harm!" Reaching the side of the hippopotamus, he put up his

  hand to help Tandy dismount.

 "I'm not going back to the Tower!" said Tandy, looking the Chief Ozamandarin

  straight in the eye. "Ever! I'm riding on to the castle, so kindly order

  some refreshments for my friends and shipmates."

 "Hi, yi, yi!" approved the old tribesman, pounding the cliff with his lance.

  "Here's a King for us. What good did your Tower do before, old Square-Hat?

  He was carried off in spite of it, wasn't he? Well, trot along now and do

  as he says; he's the King, and I'm here to see he gets his rights!" Shocked

  by the determination in Tandy's voice and the evident delight of the crowd

  at his defiance, Didjabo put up his hand for silence.

 "It is the law of the land that the nine Ozamandarins shall guard the life

  and preserve the health of the country's sovereign," stated Didjabo in his

  cold and impressive voice. "Until this boy becomes of age he must be cared

  for and protected from his enemies. Forward, guards! On to the Tower! You

  OTHERS!" Didjabo nodded disagreeably at Samuel Salt, Ato, Roger and Nikobo.

  "You others may return to your ship, where a suitable reward will be sent

  out to you. We are deeply indebted to you for finding our King, but the law

  of Ozamaland says that all foreigners landing on our shores shall be

  instantly and without delay be flung over the cliffs. In your case we

  graciously permit you to leave. Come, Tazander!"

 While Samuel Salt could not help admiring the way the old Ozamandarin was

  trying to keep the upper hand, he had no intention of leaving till he had

  assured himself that Tandy was in safe and proper hands. "But surely you

  will wish to hear the story of how we found this boy and explain how he

  happened to be on that jungle island!" observed Samuel mildly. "Step back,

  my good fellow, Nikobo has large feet, and she just might happen to tread

  on you."

 "Yes," wheezed Nikobo sullenly, "I must might happen to do that very thing."

  Slipping round to the other side of the hippopotamus, Didjabo, paying no

  attention to either remark, tried to pull Tandy to the ground. But the

  little boy, remembering Roger's advice about lubbers, gave him a fast and

  sudden poke in the nose that sent his hat flying off and the Ozamandarin

  himself rolling head over heels.

 "Hurray, hurray! Avast and belay! And down with old Square-Hats forever!"

  shrilled the Read Bird, while Ato and Samuel exchanged a proud and pleased

  glance. While the other Ozamandarins stood uncertainly, the crowd, long

  weary of the rigid rule of the nine judges, began to laugh and cheer.

 "The King is King! Long live the King!" shouted the old tribesman

  vociferously.

 But Didjabo, pulling himself furiously to his feet, flung up his arm.

  "Guards! Guards!" he screeched venomously. "Do your work! Save this poor,

  misguided child from these unspeakable foreigners, or we are all lost. Can

  you not see they are savages, sorcerers and enemies? Seize the King and

  over the cliff with these hippopotamic invaders!"

 CHAPTER 19

 BOGLODORE'S REVENGE

 The word "hippopotamic" seemed to rouse the undecided guards to action, and

  Samuel, as the crowd moved uneasily aside to let the elephant- and

  camel-mounted guardsmen through, heartily wished himself back on the ship.

  Nikobo, squealing with rage and defiance, began moving cautiously back

  toward the path down the cliffs. But Ato, who had been merely biding his

  time, tore open his package and began tossing right and left the

  tumbleweeds and creeping vines which fortunately it had contained.

 The first creeper caught Didjabo, bound him up and laid him by the heels

  before he could issue another order. Taking careful aim, Ato threw a

  creeping vine at each of the other Ozamandarins. The tumbleweeds, whirling

  beneath the feet of the elephants and camels, caused them to fall to their

  knees, tossing their riders over their heads, and between the yells of the

  guards, the squeals of the camels, and trumpeting of the elephants,

  confusion was terrific. The natives and Nobles and all who could still move

  or run set off at top speed for the city without once looking behind them.

  Muttering angrily under his breath, Ato continued to hurl vines and

  tumbleweeds till none was left. Unable to advance an inch, the white guards

  and their mounts rolled and groveled together in the deep sand.

 "Now we can go on to the palace!" cried Tandy, a bit breathless by the

  suddenness of it all. "Oh, Ato, how did you ever happen to bring those

  plants along?"

 "I suspected some of these subjects of yours were villains," answered Ato

  grimly, "and the only way to meet villains is with villainy. Forward,

  march, my Lass! On to the King's castle!"

 Picking her way around the fallen men and beasts, Nikobo, snorting at each

  step to show her superiority and contempt, set out for the Royal Palace. Of

  all the people who had run out on the cliffs, besides the securely bound

  Ozamandarins and the guard, only the old tribesman who had first cheered

  Tandy remained. "Oh, please do come with us," invited Tandy earnestly as

  the old man stepped smilingly out of Nikobo's way. "You could tell me all

  about the tent dwellers and help me so much if you would."

 "I am Chunum, the Sheik, head of a thousand tribes and speaking for them. I

  can say they all will proudly and gladly serve your brave young Majesty.

  Too long have the city dwellers ruled this great liberty-loving land."

 "Then over the side and under the hatches with 'em," cried Roger, beside

  himself with joy and exuberance at the neat way Ato had handled Tandy's

  subjects. "This boy's an able-bodied seaman and explorer and will stand no

  nonsense!"

 "My sea is the desert," said Chunum, striding jauntily along beside Nikobo,

  "and my ship is a camel, but I'll wager we'll understand each other well

  enough for all that."

 To Tandy, conversing eagerly with Chunum, the splendor of the White city of

  Om was an old story, but to the others it seemed, with its flashing marble

  walks, great waving palms, and towering dwellings and castle, one of the

  loveliest capitals they had yet visited.

 Word of the happenings on the cliff had traveled fast. Longing to welcome

  the young King, but fearing the strange magicians who had come with him,

  the Nobles had barred themselves in their fine houses, and the natives had

  fled to the hills beyond the city gates. The many-domed marble palace was

  absolutely deserted when Nikobo pushed her way through the wide doors. Not

  a footman, page or courtier was in sight. Seeing no attention or service

  was to be had for some time, Ato hurried away to the kitchen and was soon

  happily at work preparing a splendid feast to celebrate Tandy's homecoming.

 20

 Tandy himself felt quiet and sad, examining with scant interest and

  enthusiasm the splendid rooms which he had never yet been allowed to live

  in. To tell the truth, he would have traded the whole castle for his small

  cabin aboard Samuel's ship. Samuel himself, never really happy or

  comfortable ashore, wandered about aimlessly, opening books on the long

  tables, peering out windows, and finally settling with a sigh of

  resignation in a huge chair beside the throne. Nikobo had found a long pool

  and fountain in the same room, and lying at full length in this luxuriant

  marble bath, tranquilly waited for events to shape themselves.

 "Why not sit on your throne?" asked Roger as Tandy seated himself on a small

  stool beside Samuel Salt.

 "Oh, it's much too big for me," sighed Tandy, thinking how very big and

  lonely the palace would seem when all his shipmates had gone.

 "Aho, and methinks you are right! Ahoy, the beginning of a beautiful idea

  doth at this moment start to seep through the head feathers. Of which,

  more anon!" Chunum, who had never before heard a bird talk, stared at

  Roger in amazed interest and surprise, but giving him no more satisfaction

  than a mischievous wink, the Read Bird flew off to help Ato with the

  dinner. And now Samuel proceeded to tell the old tribesman how he had found

  Tandy in the jungle imprisoned in the wooden cage. As he finished, Chunum

  shook his head in stern displeasure.

 "It has long been my conviction and belief," he stated solemnly, "that the

  Ozamandarins are at the bottom of this. Every year they usurp more and more

  power, and keeping the young King shut up in the Tower was but an excuse to

  give them their own will and way. Nor can I believe that the royal parents

  of this boy accidentally fell into the sea as they were reported to have

  done, or that the young aunts mentioned in the prophecy had anything at all

  to do with Tandy's abduction. Tell me, how long will the vines hold those

  villains prisoner, for only that long is Tazander safe. We must think and

  act quickly," said Chunum, tapping his staff thoughtfully on the floor.

 "The vines will not unwind for two days, and before THEN C4 HAH!" Samuel

  expelled his breath in a mighty blast and sprang purposefully to his feet.

  "Before then we shall put those fellows in a very safe place for Tandy and

  for them, too, shiver my timbers!" Taking Chunum by the shoulder, Samuel

  started toward the door, and seeing the two intended to leave the castle,

  Nikobo climbed out of the fountain and offered to carry them. Tandy nodded

  absently as the two left the castle, his thoughts still far away on the

  Crescent Moon, and considering the work they had to do, Samuel and

  Chunum were well pleased to leave him behind.

 With surprising speed the hippopotamus made the return trip to the cliffs.

  The effects of the tumbleweed had evidently worn off, and the guards and

  their mounts had fled with the rest of the inhabitants of White City to the

  hills. But the nine Ozamandarins still lay in their curious cradles in the

  deep, coarse sand. As Samuel and Chunum, in absolute agreement as to what

  should be done, rolled off Nikobo's back, a furious bellow and screech

  brought them up short. Nikobo, startled out of her usual calm, fell back on

  her haunches and after one horrified look upward, buried her head in the

  sand.

 "It can't be!" cried Samuel, clutching Chunum's sleeve. "It can't be, but it

  is!"

 "An elephant, a flying elephant!" panted Chunum, dragging Samuel from under

  the immense shadow. "Flatten yourself in the sand, seaman, and we may yet

  be spared." As Samuel, more amazed than scared at so strange and curious a

  specimen, and even vaguely hopeful of capturing the unwieldy creature, made

  no move, Chunum dragged him down by main force. The elephant meanwhile

  lighted like some gigantic butterfly on the edge of the cliff. Fairly

  bleating with fright and terror, the nine Ozamandarins watched him swooping

  toward them with a sinister and soundless speed. Just behind his ear

  perched Boglodore, the Old Man of the Jungle, looking cruel and ugly as the

  genie of all evil.

 "Revenge! Revenge!" shrilled the turbanned native, clenching his fists. "Now

  shall Boglodore have his reward!" Addressing himself to Chunum and Samuel

  Salt, the Old Man of the Jungle began screaming out the story of his

  wrongs. "For those scheming rascals I carried away on Umbo, my great and

  useful umbrellaphant, the young King of this country. For this I was to

  receive one-tenth of the Kingdom, the Ozamandarins themselves to divide the

  rest of the country among them. But hah! What happened?"

 Dancing up and down on the elephant's head, Boglodore again clenched his

  fists, his face distorted with rage and fury. "What happened? Why, these

  miserable cheats refused to pay me, intending to keep the whole country for

  themselves. But hearken well, you and YOU!" Jerking his thumb

  contemptuously toward his rigid and helpless enemies, the Old Man continued

  his story.

 "All along I have suspected these thieving Zamans; all along I intended to

  fool them and return the little King to his castle, keeping only the jungle

  for my own. That is why I built the boy his cage in the jungle and set

  Nikobo, the great hippopotamus, to watch over him, giving her the power of

  speech and the desire to seek out and protect this unfortunate child of an

  unfortunate country. I am a magician and could well bring about these

  things. You, whoever you are, who found and brought him back to Ozamaland

  did no more than I myself intended to do and intend to do now. After

  restoring Tandy to his throne, I meant to deal with his enemies, and now as

  they are so neatly bound up and ready, I shall reward them well for their

  pains and treachery."

 "Stop! Stop! Avast there and belay!" shouted Samuel Salt as the

  umbrellaphant, obeying an order from the terrible Old Man, picked up

  Didjabo in his trunk and flew swiftly toward the cliff's edge. But Chunum,

  again dragging Samuel down, whispered fiercely in his ear.

 "It is justice, seaman, and only what we ourselves planned to do. The vines

  will keep these rogues afloat for two days, then haply they will sink C4

  not to die, as death comes not to the people of my country, but to lie for

  long, forgotten ages at the bottom of the sea, harmless and sodden and

  unable to do any more harm to the country they have so dishonorably served

  and betrayed!"

 Shuddering and in a tense silence, Samuel and the Sheik watched the

  umbrellaphant toss the wretched Ozamandarins one after the other into the

  sea. The immense zooming monster fascinated the Captain of the Crescent

  Moon. Not wings, but a balloon-like structure of its own tough skin

  billowing over its back like a howdah enabled Umbo to navigate in the air.

  Samuel was anxious for further talk with the Old Man of the Jungle, but as

  the last Ozamandarin fell over the cliff, the umbrellaphant, with a trumpet

  of defiance, headed rapidly for the open sea.

 "Look! Look! It's getting away!" cried Samuel, rushing to the cliff's edge

  and almost tumbling over. "Do you realize that there goes the only

  umbrellaphant in captivity?"

 "Well, well, and what if it is?" muttered Chunum, again pulling Samuel back

  to safety. "I expect Boglodore does not find this country healthy after the

  pretty story he has just told us, and come, COME, Master Seaman, what would

  you do with a flying elephant aboard your ship?"

 "I'd tie it to the mast and carry it back to Oz," explained Samuel, staring

  gloomily after the disappearing prize. "Why, it would be the most rare and

  amazing specimen ever brought back from anywhere, and now C4 now C4 I've

  lost itFF20C4"

 Samuel's arms dropped heavily to his sides, and turning away from the cliff,

  he began walking slowly back toward Nikobo, who had at last ventured to

  lift her head from the sand. Surprised enough was the hippopotamus to learn

  that she had been given her power of speech by the ugly little magician on

  the umbrellaphant, and frightened lest she forget Tandy's language, she

  began talking rapidly to herself.

 "But you forget what all this means!" panted Chunum, catching up with the

  Explorer and shaking him energetically by the shoulder. "Why, this clears

  up the whole mystery. Not an AUNT, but an ELEPHant carried Tazander to

  Patrippany Island. We must return quickly to the castle and release his

  innocent relatives. I myself will call back Tandy's frightened subjects and

  tell them of the great good fortune that has befallen, that we are rid of

  nine rogues and have a brave young King to rule Ozamaland. Come, come, do

  not stand here dreaming about lost elephants; there is much to be

  accomplished and done."

 "Goosewing my topsails, you're right!" breathed Samuel Salt, coming

  completely out of his reverie. "Round up the citizens, comrade, and I'll

  carry the good news to the castle."

 CHAPTER 20

 KING TANDY

 When Samuel reached the castle, he found Ato and Roger had set a small, cozy

  table in the Throne Room, and Tandy was anxiously looking out of one of the

  gold-framed windows for his return. The whiffs from the covered dishes were

  so appetizing the Royal Explorer of Oz was almost inclined to let his news

  wait till afterward. But thinking better of it, he blurted out the whole

  story of what had happened to the Ozamandarins.

 "Then they're all gone and done for," sniffed Ato, seating himself at the

  head of the table. "Well, a couple of hundred years at the bottom of the

  sea should soak all the sin and wickedness out of 'em! And you say it was

  an unbrellaphant that carried Tandy off? My! and MY! Dear, dear and DEAR!

  Just pour me a cup of coffee, Roger. I'm feeling weaker than soup!"

 "Well, how do you suppose I feel," grumbled Samuel Salt, throwing his

  hat up on a bronze figure, "to lose an elegant specimen like that? Why,

  I'll wager we'll never see another creature like it!"

 "There! There! Always talking about the elephant that got away instead of

  appreciating your good fortune!" scolded Ato, throwing a corn muffin down

  to Nikobo and lifting the gold cover off the roast fowl.

 "Yes, and you'd better listen to OUR news, Master Salt!" Roger said, pouring

  a cup of coffee for all hands.

 "News? NEWS? Has anything happened here?" Samuel looked more anxious than

  interested.

 "Oh, YES!" cried Tandy, running round to his side of the table and pressing

  eagerly against Samuel's knee. "Roger has a wonderful plan, and I as King

  of Ozamaland have agreed to it, and oh, Samuel, SAMUEL!" Forgetting he

  usually called the tremendous seaman "Captain," Tandy flung both arms round

  his neck and almost squeezed the breath out of him. "I'm going straight

  back on the Crescent Moon, and I'm not coming ashore for years and

  years. I'm going with you to Ev, Oz, Elbow Island, and everywhere!"

 "What?" spluttered Samuel Salt, disentangling himself with great difficulty

  and holding Tandy off at arm's length. "Are you joking? Are you crazy? Have

  you abdicated or what? Why, this is too good to be true!"

 "But it is true!" insisted Roger, strutting up and down the table and

  illy concealing his pride and satisfaction.

 "Oh, tell him, tell him," begged Tandy, too happy to speak for himself.

 "Well," said Roger, spreading his wings self-consciously, for the plan was

  his, and he felt prouder of it every minute, "we are placing Ozamaland

  under the general rule and protection of Oz and leaving as Ruler in Tandy's

  place that long-legged son of the desert, Chunum. Now there's a fellow who

  can handle these scary Nobles and natives and wild elephant and camel

  riders. A King must complete his education before he starts ruling, you

  know." Roger paused to scratch his head and wink gaily at Samuel Salt. "And

  if this King chooses to finish his education on our ship, that is his own

  affair."

 "Oh, quite! Quite!" Samuel began to rock backward and forward and roar with

  merriment. "Roger, you rascal, you've done as good a job of reasoning as a

  whole flock of Wise Men! Fall to, Mates, now we can enjoy our victuals, and

  I give you a toast to King Tandy, Cabin Boy, Explorer and Artist

  Extraordinary to this Expedition!"

 "Tandy! Tandy!" echoed Ato and Roger, lifting their coffee cups.

 "Tandy! Tandy!" mumbled Nikobo, who was lunching largely and luxuriantly on

  the flowers in a low window box. "When do we sail?"

 CHAPTER 21

 A VOYAGE RESUMED

 Anxious as Tandy was to return to the Crescent Moon and continue the

  voyage, it was a whole week before they finally shoved off. Chunum, true to

  his word, had rounded up the frightened citizens of the capital and

  explained to them the wicked plots of the Ozamandarins and their punishment

  by Boglodore, the Old Man of the Jungle. Then Tandy, addressing them from

  the castle balcony, called upon them to consider Chunum as their King until

  he himself should have20completed his education in foreign parts and

  aboard the Crescent Moon, during which time he promised to keep them

  always in mind and have their welfare always at heart. Next, Tandy

  explained how Ozamaland was now a province and under the general rule and

  protection of Ozma of Oz, how settlers from that famous fairyland would

  soon arrive to help them build new cities and towns, tame the wild jungles

  of the interior, and repel the dangerous invasions of the Greys.

 Here Chunum rose to declare he himself would be responsible for peace along

  the border between Amaland and Ozamaland, that the Greys had long desired

  to be friends with the Whites, but trouble had been stirred up by the

  Ozamandarins so they might have the credit of protecting the country. Then

  Tandy spoke again of all the advantages that would be enjoyed from their

  association with the Kingdom of Oz. It was a long and splendid speech,

  Roger and Tandy having spent the whole morning in its preparation, and

  delighted and surprised by the energy and ambition of their young Ruler,

  Tandy's subjects cheered him long and vociferously, greeting each new plan

  and proposal with loud acclaim and enthusiasm. The royal aunts and

  relatives, already released from the castle dungeons and restored to their

  royal dwellings, could not speak highly enough of their young relative's

  bravery and cleverness and the bravery and cleverness of all of his new

  friends. They quite wore Nikobo out with their questions and petting, and

  the hippopotamus sighed hugely for the time when they would all be at sea.

 "Was I right or was I wrong?" questioned Roger on the third afternoon as

  Tandy, resplendent in his court suit of white velvet, reviewed the vast

  parade of Loyal Nobles and Natives, and the long lines of elephants and

  camels went sweeping by the palace. "They love you just as much for going

  away as they would if you stayed. And Chunum is a Man in a Million."

 "Right!" Tandy nodded, waving happily to the crowds that in a high holiday

  mood thronged the walks and parks of the beautiful White City. Chunum had

  taken Samuel Salt and Ato on an expedition into the jungle so that the

  Royal Explorer of Oz could procure a creeping bird and flying reptile for

  his collection. Nikobo, old jungaleer that she was, had gone along to see

  that no harm came to them.

 To Tandy, a snake with feathers and a bird with scales and fangs was no

  novelty, but Samuel, returning with a pair of each, considered them the

  most peculiar and precious of his queer specimens. He carried their cages

  everywhere he went and spent long, rapt hours watching the snakes fly and

  the birds creep about their new cages. Ato had discovered a new and rare

  fruit and had brought along several slips to plant in the rail boxes he had

  outside the galley. Nikobo had swum to her heart's content in a green and

  muddy jungle stream, and all three were now quite ready and anxious to

  continue the voyage. Aboard the Crescent Moon one of the Guards had

  been established to feed the monkey fish and water boy and tend to the

  plants in the hold and serve as watchman. And early one bright morning,

  just a week after they had landed, the members of the Royal Exploration

  Party of Oz set forth from the palace.

 Oz flags fluttered and snapped in the fresh morning breeze, mingling with

  the white banners of Ozamaland, and the streets and avenues were lined with

  Tandy's cheering and now quite cheerful subjects. Riding Nikobo,

  accompanied by Chunum on a white elephant and the entire camel corps and

  elephant guard, the party made their way down to the water's edge, feeling

  exactly, as Ato whispered in a laughing undertone to Roger, like a whole

  circus and a zoo. Besides Roger, Tandy, Samuel Salt and Ato, Nikobo carried

  two large cages and two small cages. In the small cages were the flying

  reptiles and creeping birds. In the large cages a baby white camel and a

  baby white elephant. "You'll sink, my Lass," worried Samuel Salt as Nikobo,

  having safely made her way down the rocky cliff road, waded confidently out

  into the sea.

 "Not me," murmured the hippopotamus comfortably. "You may get wet, but I'll

  get you safely out to the ship. Trust me."

 "Goodbye! Goodbye, all!" cried Tandy, standing up on her back to wave to the

  crowds collected on the cliffs. Now that he was leaving, he felt a strange

  fondness for them. "Goodbye, Chunum! I'll be back, never fear!"

 "Goodbye, Little Fellow! Goodbye, Little King! A fair and faraway voyage to

  you," called the tall old desert chief, standing up in his stirrups to wave

  his long lance. "To the sun, the moon, the stars I commend you! Go in

  happiness and return in health and live long to rule over Ozamaland."

 "You take care of the country, and we'll take care of the King," shouted

  Samuel. "Goodbye! Goodbye! Be watching, all of you, for the ships from Oz!"

 "Goodbye! Goodbye!" called the Nobles, the natives, the guards; even the

  elephants and camels raised their shrill voices in farewell as Nikobo swam

  strongly away from the shore and toward the Crescent Moon.

 The guard left in charge of the ship thankfully turned the vessel over to

  its rightful owners, and shaking Tandy feelingly by the hand, climbed down

  the ladder and dropped nervously on the back of the hippopotamus, who was

  to carry him to shore.

 "Here, Brainless, lend a hand with the freight," yelled Roger as Tandy stood

  gazing rather thoughtfully toward the cliffs. "The King's ashore! Long live

  his cabin boy! I'll carry these pesky reptiles if you take the camel."

  Roger winked at Tandy as Samuel Salt, bent double under the baby elephant's

  cage, started carefully down to the hold. The baby camel and its cage were

  so small, Tandy could manage them quite easily, and with a little laugh he

  hurried after Samuel and Roger. By the time they had finished, Nikobo had

  returned from her shore trip and climbed thankfully back on her raft.

 "All hands stand by to heave up the anchor," bellowed Samuel, stepping

  cheerfully over to his sail controls. "Anchors aweigh! And away we go,

  boys, and the hippopotamus take the hindmost!"

 "Ho, ho! Well, she's built for it," roared Ato, bending his weight to the

  cable as sail after sail rattled up the masts and bellied out from the

  yards. "Where to now, Sam-u-el? Oz?"

 "OZ, I should say not! We've a lot of geography to discover before we go

  back to Oz. We'll need a roc's egg before we go there, eh Tandy? A roc's

  egg and sixty more islands for Ozma's Christmas stocking."

 "Oh! Will we really spend Christmas in Oz?" cried Tandy, skipping up and

  down the deck and forgetting all about his subjects waving from the cliffs.

 "Why not?" demanded Samuel Salt, letting his hands fall happily upon the

  wheel. "Oz is as merry a place as any to spend Christmas, eh Roger?"

 "Merry as eight bells!" cried Roger, flying joyfully into the rigging.

  "Ahoy! Ahoy! Nothing but sea t'seaward!"

 And when the Crescent Moon flies over Ev and drops down the Winkie River

  on Christmas morning with its chart full of islands and curious continents

  and its hold full of strange beasts, plants and treasure, I for one should

  like to be there, shouldn't you?

 THE END