Kabumpo to the Rescue
You have guessed that it was our old friend Humpy who had begged a
breakfast of Tora, the tailor. You see the Elegant Elephant, travelling
like the wind itself, had carried Dorothy and the dummy almost to the
exact spot where Snip and Tora had fallen out of the Fare-well. Then,
exceedingly fatigued by his unaccustomed exertion, Kabumpo had gone off
in search of some lunch.
Snip had scarcely recovered from the shock of Humpy's sudden
disappearance when back he came, holding Dorothy tightly by the hand.
Now the little button boy had often seen pictures of Dorothy in the
history books of Kimbaloo, but she had always been dressed as a
Princess, so we cannot blame him for failing to recognize the shabby
little girl who stood staring so earnestly at the tired tailor of Oz.
"Why he has no ears at all," cried Dorothy. Then, catching sight of
Snip, she stopped short. "We were wondering whether you could lend
us some lunch," faltered Dorothy, talking very fast to cover her
embarrassment. "Kabumpo can eat tree-tops and Humpy does not eat at
all, but I've had nothing but a tomato since breakfast and I'm very
hungry."
"There's a breakfast bush over yonder," answered Snip, waving sulkily
toward the grove. Tora had saved his face and he was not going to have
him laughed at. Dorothy turned to see for herself and, as she did, Tora
arose and moved quickly over to the dummy.
"You remind me of someone I used to know," sighed the tailor, fingering
Humpy's green velvet robe dreamily. "Who are you? Are you real?"
"Well, not quite. You see," began Dorothy, "he's a moving picture
dummy." Suddenly remembering that the tailor could not hear her, she
turned back to Snip. "Where _are_ his ears?" asked the little girl
nervously.
"Here they come now!" cried Snip, forgetting his vexation and, setting
down the two breakfast dishes, he waved his cap excitedly in the air.
As Snip waved and pointed, Dorothy saw the tailor's ears whizz giddily
over a lilac bush and then settle softly, one on each side of his head.
"Who did you say you were?" asked Tora calmly, continuing his
conversation with Humpy and paying no more attention to his ears than
we would pay to a couple of flies.
"A dummy!" whispered Humpy, blinking his painted eyes, while his voice
grew fainter and fainter with astonishment. "I am a dummy, but what in
Oz are you?"
"A tailor," answered Tora with a wink at Snip. "Well, that's a splendid
cloak you're wearing, and a crown too. Are you a king, dummy?"
"No, he's a dummy king," explained Dorothy, looking longingly at the
hot breakfasts. "If we could just sit down and have something to eat I
could tell you all about him. Then, maybe, you would tell me a little
about your--" Dorothy was going to say ears but, fearing this might
not be quite polite, she changed it quickly to selves. The little girl
cast a curious sidelong glance at Snip, but the button boy was gazing
intently at the dummy.
"Why we're looking for a king," exploded Snip excitedly. "Oh Tora, do
you suppose this could be he?"
"Why not do as this little lady suggests?" interrupted Tora, for
he could see that Dorothy was weary as well as hungry. "Let's have
breakfast together and then talk things over."
"Well, don't start until I come back," called the little boy, as
Dorothy settled comfortably down beside the tailor. In a moment
Snip had returned with another breakfast and, while Humpy looked on
curiously, they opened the silver dishes Snip had picked from the
breakfast bush. What could be cozier? Bacon, eggs, toast and a small
sealed cup of coffee grew neatly in each one, but it never occurred
to Dorothy, Snip or the tailor to be surprised at this, for breakfast
bushes are quite common in Oz. Humpy, however, had seen nothing like
this in the movies and kept up a low muttering to himself, as he
watched them eat one and then another dainty from the dishes.
"Now then," smiled the tailor, after he had taken a long sip of coffee,
"suppose you begin." He looked expectantly at Dorothy. "I think you
must be the little girl my ears were telling me of a while back, but
where is the elephant?"
"Mercy!" spluttered Dorothy, nearly choking on her coffee. "Do your
ears tell you everything?"
"Oh no, just odds and ends of things," answered Tora, reaching up to
touch them affectionately.
"Well, did they tell you about me?" inquired Humpy, straightening his
crown importantly.
"No," smiled the old man. "That's just what we're waiting to hear,
though I declare I have seen you somewhere before. Have you ever seen
me?"
Humpy shook his head very positively and Dorothy, settling back against
a tree, proceeded with her story. Introducing herself modestly and
beginning with Wish Way, she related every single thing that had
happened since her fall into California.
Snip was especially interested in Dorothy's sudden change in size. "Is
that what tore your dress?" he asked curiously.
The little girl nodded and Tora, ruffling up his silver locks and
looking first at Dorothy and then at Humpy, murmured over and over:
"Well, I can hardly believe my ears, I can hardly believe my ears!"
Dorothy could not help thinking that the tailor's ears were hard
for anyone to believe, but feeling it would be rude to say so, went
hurriedly on with her adventures, telling of her meeting with the
Scooters and with the Elegant Elephant, whom she described at some
length.
"And now," concluded the little girl, finishing off the last of the
toast, "we're going straight to the Emerald City. Where are _you_
going?"
"Why we're going to the Emerald City too!" burst out Snip, "and maybe
Dorothy can help us find Pajuka and warn Ozma!"
"Warn Ozma?" cried Dorothy, jumping up in a hurry. "Why, what is the
matter?"
"Better tell her," advised the tailor gravely, while Humpy edged close
to the little button boy and looked earnestly up into his face.
"Well," began Snip, feeling a bit shy in the presence of a person as
important as Princess Dorothy of Oz, "Mombi is trying to find the lost
King of Oz and turn Ozma to a piano. Pajuka, he's a goose, I mean a
Prime Minister, and he's trying to find the King too, and if we don't
get to the Emerald City first that old witch will steal all the magic
and capture everybody."
"Why this is a regular thriller," puffed the dummy, pushing back his
crown. "Witches, geese, lost kings and everything. Oh, I'm enjoying
this picture immensely. Couldn't I fall for this lost king, Dorothy?"
"I thought you were the King, yourself, at first," explained Snip, "but
of course, if Dorothy found you in America, you couldn't possibly be
the King of Oz. Besides, I don't believe Mombi would turn the King to
a dummy, do you?"
"Oh, anything can happen in the pictures," said Humpy carelessly.
No one had time to tell Humpy he was not in a picture, for Dorothy,
shuddering at the mere mention of old Mombi, insisted on Snip telling
all over again just how he had discovered the witch's wicked plans.
This Snip did, from the strange conversation between Pajuka and Mombi
in the castle kitchen of Kimbaloo to his encounter with the Blanks
and his escape with the tired tailor of Oz. When he came to the part
in the story where Mombi had flung him down the well, Humpy fell over
backwards and Dorothy gasped with indignation.
"Oh, we'll have to hurry, we'll have to hurry!" exclaimed the little
girl, clasping her hands anxiously, "for if Mombi reaches the Emerald
City first something dreadful will happen. I'm glad the King of Oz is
alive, but I'm not going to have Ozma turned to a piano. Oh dear! Oh
dear! Why doesn't Kabumpo hurry back?"
"Hadn't we better start anyway?" asked Snip, who was growing more and
more worried about Pajuka. He felt sure Mombi meant to get rid of the
goose as soon as she found the King. "Let's go without the elephant,"
he proposed eagerly.
"No, we'd better wait," advised Dorothy, "for Kabumpo can travel a
hundred times faster than we can, and a hundred times faster than Mombi
can."
"While we are waiting," suggested Tora, who had been carefully
threading his needle, "I'll mend your frock, my dear. Have you any more
buttons, Snip?"
Snip felt in his pockets and brought out a handful of gold and silver
buttons and as Dorothy stood shading her eyes and keeping an anxious
lookout for Kabumpo, Tora sewed them neatly in place.
"It must have been mighty queer, growing up all at once," observed
the old tailor, biting off his thread and giving the little girl an
affectionate pat on the shoulder.
"It was," answered Dorothy, groaning at the recollection. "I can't
imagine what happened to me, but then everything's very queer lately."
With her frock neatly buttoned, Dorothy began to feel more like
herself. She thanked Tora sweetly and smilingly invited him to tell
them something about himself.
"Yes, do," urged Snip, coming to stand beside her.
"Well," sighed the old man, sticking his needle back in his lapel and
taking off his specs, "there's not much to tell. I'm a tailor, as you
can readily see. How I got to Blankenburg, I don't know, but there I've
been for so long that it gives me rheumatism to think of it. But it's
all over now. When we reach this marvelous city you two young people
speak of, I shall set up a shop and live happily ever afterward."
"What? With those ears?" shouted Humpy, falling up against a tree. "Oh,
I don't believe it!"
"Hush," begged Dorothy and, turning apologetically to the tailor, she
whispered earnestly: "You really mustn't mind Humpy. You see his head
is stuffed with hair and it makes him kind of ridiculous." The tailor
chuckled under his breath and Snip giggled outright.
Just at this moment Kabumpo, magnificent in his pearls and velvet
robes, swung ponderously into view.
"Dorothy," trumpeted the Elegant Elephant, stopping a good twenty feet
from the little group and elevating his trunk haughtily, "what are you
doing with those shabby fellows? Don't you realize you're a Princess? A
tailor! Great Grump! Do you expect me to associate with a tailor?"
"But gaze upon his ears," cried Humpy, waving his cloak triumphantly
at Tora. "They wag, wiggle and fly off by themselves. And we're hunting
a king, a witch and a goose. Hurry up, you elegant old thing, we need
you in this picture."
"No we don't, we'll go on by ourselves." Snip looked angrily at Kabumpo
and, taking Tora's arm, began to walk off.
"Oh wait!" gasped Dorothy, more embarrassed by Kabumpo's rudeness than
by the dummy's ridiculousness. "Kabumpo doesn't mean that. He's really
awfully jolly when you get to know him better."
"Don't bother, my dear," Tora smiled, a little sadly. Reaching up he
took off both his ears and put them quietly into his pocket. "I never
listen to unpleasant conversations," explained the old man simply.
"Good-bye," said Snip, bowing rather stiffly to Dorothy. "If you reach
the Emerald City before we do, be sure to tell Ozma about her father."
"Now please don't go," begged Dorothy. "Wait! Wait!" In great distress
she dashed over to the Elegant Elephant and poured out the whole story
of the lost King of Oz and of Mombi's wickedness.
When Tora had so unexpectedly taken off his ears Kabumpo's little eyes
had fairly rolled in his head and now, as he listened to Dorothy's
strange recital, they began to snap and sparkle with interest. If
there was one thing Kabumpo enjoyed, it was being mixed up in a royal
adventure. Finding the lost King of Oz would be a very creditable
thing, even for an elephant so elegant as himself. It might even gain
him an important position at court, thought Kabumpo craftily. And what
a choice bit of news to carry home to Pumperdink--that Ozma was not the
Queen at all, and that he, Kabumpo the Magnificent, had helped find
the real monarch and had been present at the coronation. Already his
imagination leaped ahead to this important event.
Concealing, in his pompous and provoking fashion, his real interest
and excitement, Kabumpo set Dorothy upon his back and started in a
dignified and stately manner toward Tora and Snip.
"I understand you are friends of the lost King of Oz," wheezed Kabumpo
grandly, as he came up beside them. "Are you going on to the Emerald
City? Care to ride?" he asked graciously. This was as near an apology
as Kabumpo ever got.
"Hear! Hear!" spluttered the dummy, who was walking stiffly behind the
tailor.
Of course Tora could not do this, as his ears were still in his pocket,
but Snip, looking inquiringly up at Dorothy saw her motion earnestly
for him to yield. He decided to overlook the elephant's rudeness and
gave Kabumpo a signal to lift him up.
"Did she say you were a mutton boy?" asked Kabumpo, as he placed Snip
beside the little girl.
"No, a button boy," corrected Dorothy hastily, "from the Kingdom of
Kimbaloo, you know."
"Ah yes," grunted Kabumpo condescendingly, "I remember hearing of
Kimbaloo--a buttony sort of place across the mountains from Pumperdink."
Snip was about to retort with something short and sassy, when Kabumpo
lifted up the tailor and as Tora seemed terribly alarmed by the
suddenness of his transit through the air, Snip helped him to settle
comfortably instead of talking. He just got Tora firmly seated in time
to catch Humpy, whom the Elegant Elephant tossed aloft as carelessly as
he would a bale of hay.
"All ready?" boomed Kabumpo importantly. "Well, then here we go." And
before anyone could answer he was off, moving swiftly and surely as a
battleship through the waving billows of wheat.
"What did you find for lunch?" called Humpy curiously. Snip and Tora
hadn't breath to say anything, and Dorothy was too worried about Ozma
to want to talk. But Kabumpo, instead of answering, threw up his
trunk, sending forth such a volley of shrill bellows that Snip's hair
rose on end and the ears in Tora's pocket gave a terrified bounce.
Humpy chuckled, as he listened to the shrill trumpeting of the Elegant
Elephant. He had thought of a joke!
"Ah, he has eaten a trumpet vine," mused the dummy dreamily, as the
noise died away. But it ceased for only a moment, for trumpeting was
Kabumpo's way of clearing a path for himself and, determined to reach
the capital before Mombi, the witch, he travelled as never before and,
clinging to each other and to Kabumpo's harness and robe, the four
riders made the best they could of the worst journey they had ever
taken.