The SILVER PRINCESS in OZ
_By_
RUTH PLUMLY THOMPSON
Founded on and continuing the Famous Oz Stories
_By_
L. FRANK BAUM
"Royal Historian of Oz"
_Illustrated by_
JOHN R. NEILL
* * * * *
THE SILVER PRINCESS IN OZ
Copyright 1938
By
THE REILLY & LEE CO.
Printed in the U. S. A.
[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
* * * * *
_Dear Boys and Girls:_
This book will tell you all that happened when Randy
and Kabumpo traveled off to the Castle of the Red Jinn.
Halfway there they met a Princess from Anuther Planet
and her Thunder Colt; later, a villain named Gludwig.
With a name like that, we'd know he was a villain, wouldn't
we? Now DO tell me what interested you most in this
story; any Oz news you have heard lately and all about
yourself!
There goes the bell now! Well, I'm expecting a merry
message any minute from any of you! Exciting, isn't it?
So here I go to read my first letter!
Yours, with last year's love and this year's wishes!
RUTH PLUMLY THOMPSON
254 S. Farragut Terrace,
West Philadelphia, Pa.
* * * * *
To two Little Girls
FLORENCE LINN EDSALL
and
MARY JOSEPHINE RITCHIE
this book is lovingly dedicated
by their cousin
RUTH.
* * * * *
LIST OF CHAPTERS
1 The King Rebels
2 The Elegant Elephant of Oz
3 Gaper's Gulch
4 Out of Gaper's Gulch
5 Headway
6 The Other Side of the Desert
7 The Princess of Anuther Planet
8 On to Ev
9 The Box Wood
10 Night in the Forest
11 The Field of Feathers
12 Arrival at the Castle of the Red Jinn
13 Gludwig the Glubrious
14 The Slave of the Magic Dinner Bell
15 Nonagon Island
16 All Together at Last
17 In the Red Jinn's Castle
18 The Red Jinn Restored
19 Red Magic
20 King and Queen of Regalia
CHAPTER 1
The King Rebels
In a far-away northwestern corner of the Gilliken Country of Oz lies
the rugged little Kingdom of Regalia, and in an airy and elegant
castle, set high on the tallest mountain, lives Randy, its brave
young King. When the Regalians are not busy celebrating one of their
seventy-seven national holidays, they are busy tending their flocks of
goats or looking after the vines that cover every mountain and hill,
producing the largest and most luscious grapes in Oz. These proud and
independent mountain folk have much to recommend them, and if they
consider themselves superior to any and all of the other natives in
Oz, we must not blame them too much. Perhaps the sharp, clear air and
high altitude in which they live is responsible for their top-lofty
attitude. Randy, it must be confessed, found the stiff and unbending
manner of his subjects and their correct and formal behavior on all
occasions stuffy in the extreme; and of all the stuffy occasions he
had to endure the weekly court reception was the stuffiest. Just as I
started this story he was winding up another of these royal and boring
affairs.
"Hail! Hail! Give Majesty its proper due,
Hail Randywell, King Handywell of Brandenburg and Bompadoo!
Boom! BOOM! BOOM!"
At each crash of the drums the young King winced and shuddered, then,
pulling himself together, he nodded resignedly to his richly attired
courtiers and subjects who were retiring backwards from the royal
presence. As the last bowing figure swished through the double doors,
Randy gave a huge sigh and groan. This was his three hundred and tenth
reception since ascending the throne. Ahead stretched hundreds more,
besides the daily courts where he acted as presiding Judge to settle
all disputes of the realm; countless reviewings of troops; inspections
of model goat farms; and attendance at numerous celebrations for
national heroes of Regalia.
"Oh, being a King is awful," choked the youthful monarch, loosening his
regal cape and letting it fall unheeded to the floor. "AWFUL! Will it
always be like this, Uncle?"
"Like what?" His uncle, the Grand Duke Hoochafoo, who was still
inclining his head mechanically in the direction of the door, caught
himself abruptly in the middle of a bow.
"Oh, all this silly standing round and being bowed at, this 'Hail!
Hail! and Way for His Majesty!' stuff. Galloping Gollopers, Uncle,
I'd like to step out by myself occasionally without twenty footmen
springing to open doors and fifty pages tooting on their blasted
trumpets. Why, I cannot even cross the courtyard, that a dozen
guardsmen do not fall in behind me!" Flouncing over to the window,
Randy stared out over the royal terrace. "Even the goats on the
mountain have more fun than I do," he observed bitterly. "They can
run, jump, climb and even butt one another, while I--" Randy let his
arms fall heavily at his sides. "I have not even anyone to fight with.
If just ONCE somebody would punch me in the nose instead of bowing."
Randy clenched and unclenched his fists.
"Hm--mm! So that's what you want!" Looking quizzically at his young
nephew, Uncle Hoochafoo crossed to the bell rope and gave it a savage
tug. As Randy's personal servant and valet appeared to answer the ring,
he spoke sharply, "Dawkins, kindly hit His Majesty in the nose!"
"The nose? Oh, but Your Lordship, I couldn't do a thing like that.
'Tisn't right, nor fitting--nor--"
"I said hit him in the nose," commanded Uncle Hoochafoo, advancing
grimly upon the terrified valet.
"Yes, yes, like this!" Bringing up his fist, Randy made such a
splendid connection with the valet's nose, Dawkins toppled over
backwards. Dancing from one foot to the other as the outraged servant
sprang to his feet, Randy prepared to defend himself. But with his hand
clapped to his nose, Dawkins was retiring rapidly. "Thank you!" he
muttered in a strangled voice, "thank you very much!"
"Did you hear that? He said 'Thank you,'" screamed Randy as Dawkins
disappeared with an agitated bow. "Oh, this is too much; I wish I were
back with Nandywog in Tripedalia--or anywhere but here, doing anything
but this."
"Now, now! Don't take things so hard," begged his uncle, patting him
kindly on the shoulder.
"Hard?" Randy glared at the old nobleman. "I can take things hard,
Uncle, but I cannot take them soft. I'll never forgive my father for
getting me into this--NEVER!" Randy's father, former King of Regalia,
tiring of a royal life and routine, had retired to a distant cave to
live the life of a hermit, and Randy, after traveling all over Oz to
fulfil the seven difficult tests required of a Regalian ruler, had
succeeded to the throne.
"You should not speak like that of your royal parent," chided Uncle
Hoochafoo, tapping his spectacles absently against his teeth, "for you
are very much like him, my boy, very much like him. Hmm! Hmm! Harumph!"
Uncle Hoochafoo cleared his throat thoughtfully. "What you need is a
change, a new interest. Ah, I have it! You must marry, my lad, you
must marry! Some pretty little Princess or rich young Queen, and then
everything will be punjanoobious!"
"Is being married anything like being a King?" inquired Randy
suspiciously.
"Oh, no. No, indeed, quite the reverse." The eyes of the old Duke, who
had once been married, grew glazed and pensive. "Once you are married,
you will feel less like a King every day," he promised solemnly. "And
the arguments alone will keep you occupied for hours." Uncle Hoochafoo
raised both shoulders and eyebrows. "Wait, I'll just go consult the
wise men about a proper Princess for you."
"No! No! I do not wish to be married," announced Randy, stamping his
foot. "I'll not marry for years," he declared stubbornly. Then, as
loud outcries and tremendous thumps interrupted them, he hurried over
to an open window just in time to meet a large rock that came crashing
through the amethyst pane.
"Look out!" blustered Uncle Hoochafoo, jerking Randy to his feet, for
the rock had completely bowled him over. "Well, I see you have your
wish. How's that for a knock in the nose, my lad? Not only the nose,
but also the beginning of a beautiful black eye!"
"Have I really?" Racing over to a mirror, Randy proudly examined his
injured orb. "Oh, Uncle, isn't this fun? Who did it? What's up, d'ye
s'pose--a revolution?" Hurrying back to the window, Randy recklessly
thrust out his head to stare down into the courtyard. Kayub, the
Gatekeeper, had his shoulder braced against the gold-studded doors in
the castle wall, but even so, the doors were bulging and creaking from
the thunderous blows struck from the other side.
"Open in the name of the LAW!" boomed a tremendous voice. "Thump!
Thump! Kerbang! OPEN in the name of a Prince of the Realm! Open this
door, you unmannerly Scuppernong!"
"No, no, stay where you are!" panted Kayub, waving desperately with one
arm for the guards to come help him. "Stay where you are, or go to the
rear entrance! Who do you think you are, hammering on the doors of His
Majesty's castle?"
"I don't think, I know!" raged the voice from the other side of the
wall. "I am a Prince of Pumperdink, you unspeakable clod. Open up
this door before I break it down!" And after even more furious thumps
another shower of rocks came flying over the wall.
"Great Gillikens! I think--I believe--why it IS! Kayub, Kayub, open the
door! It is a Prince!" shouted Randy, using both hands as a megaphone.
"'Tis nothing of the sort," grunted the Gatekeeper obstinately. "I
looked through me little grill but a moment ago and it's no Prince at
all, but a parade! A parade of one elephant, if you please, and when I
orders him to the rear entrance he ups with his trunk and flings rocks
over our wall!"
"But this elephant IS a Prince," insisted Randy, banging on the window
ledge. "Besides, he's a great friend of mine."
"Open the door, fool!" directed Uncle Hoochafoo, leaning so far out the
window his crown fell to the paving stones. "The King has spoken. Admit
this elephant at once! At once!"
"And about time," fumed an indignant voice, as Kayub reluctantly
drew the bolts and, swinging wide the doors, stepped back to let a
magnificently caparisoned elephant swing through. "A fine welcome this
is, I must say, for the Elegant Elephant of Oz! Out of my way, wart!"
Picking Kayub up in his trunk, the visitor jammed him down hard into a
golden trash barrel, trumpeted fiercely at the double line of guards
who had instantly sprung to attention, and went swaying across the
courtyard.
Now nowhere but in Oz could an elephant talk, much less come hammering
on the doors of a royal castle, but in Oz, as we very well know,
animals talk and act as sensibly as people, which makes Oz about ten
times as exciting as any other country on the map. But while I've been
explaining all this, Randy had run down the steps and was half-way
across the courtyard.
"Kabumpo, KABUMPO, is it really you? Oh, at last--AT LAST you are
here!" Impatiently waving aside the guards, Randy led his mammoth and
still muttering guest into the palace.
"Kaybumpo, is it?" sniffed Kayub, jerking himself with great
difficulty out of the trash barrel. "Such goings on. Well, all I
say--" The Gatekeeper peered carefully over his shoulder to see that
the elephant was safely inside the castle, then, raising his arm for
the benefit of the staring guards, he cried fiercely. "All I can say
is--just let him show his snoot around here again and I'll kabump him
down the mountain!"