Gludwig the Glubrious
"Pss-sst! Wait! Hold on a minute!" As they reached the huge double
doors of the red castle, Randy tugged violently at Kabumpo's left
ear, for the Elegant Elephant, all humped together, was preparing to
bump through. "Let Thun break down the door," directed the young King
firmly. "Thun is of metal and the glass will not cut him; then, as soon
as there is an opening we can follow. Will you tell him, Planetty?"
Randy looked fondly down at the earnest little Princess. "And as soon
as we are inside," he went on hurriedly, "fling your staff at the first
person I point out to you."
"That I will," promised Planetty with a brief nod, and giving Thun his
orders, she galloped the Thunder Colt straight at the glass doors. With
a crash like the fall of a hundred trays of dishes, the glass doors
shivered to bits. Rushing through the flying splinters, Kabumpo and
Thun raced together into the palace.
How well Randy remembered this cozy throne room, its transparent,
red glass pillars and floors, its gay, red lacquered furniture, its
tinkling curtains of strung rubies, and the long line of enormous red
vases leading up to the throne. But instead of the jolly little Jinn,
encased in his own shining jar, a long, lank black man in a red wig
lounged on the seat of state. He was smoking a tenuous red pipe, and,
as Kabumpo and Thun came to an abrupt halt before him, he blinked
wickedly out from under his bushy red lashes. Besides the red-wigged
imposter Randy noted with some relief, there was not another soul in
sight.
"Well," demanded Gludwig, insolently, "what do you hope to accomplish
by this unwarranted intrusion?" Taking his pipe out of his mouth, he
blew a cloud of villainous black smoke into the faces of his visitors.
So thick and sulphurous were the fumes, Randy and Kabumpo were
rendered speechless. While they choked and spluttered, Planetty, who
did not seem aware of the smoke at all, gazed in wide-eyed delight
around her. So THIS was a castle!
"How nite, how netiful!" Lost in wonder and admiration, the little
Princess forgot all about the stern purpose of their visit.
"Off that throne! Off that throne, you wart!" rasped Kabumpo, clearing
his throat with an ear-splitting trumpet. "What have you done with
Jinnicky? You're no more a wizard than I am! You're as false and
crooked as your wig! Down with him! Down with him, Randy! Let him
repent of his wickedness in uttermost disgrace and debasement!"
"So my downfall is the little plan?" Speaking calmly, but trembling
with fury at Kabumpo's taunting speech, Gludwig rose. At the same
instant Randy, recovering his breath, called desperately.
"Now, Planetty, your staff! Throw it straight at him. Oh, quickly!"
Thun's hot breath was already singeing Gludwig's ankles, and, leaping
over the throne, he crouched down like a great black panther behind it.
"Ha, ha!" he shouted again. "My downfall and debasement is it? Well,
try a bit of downfalling and debasement yourselves."
Just as Planetty, taking careful aim, hurled her gleaming staff,
Gludwig pulled a tremendous lever in the wall beside him. Instantly the
floor on the other side of the throne dropped down, slanting Kabumpo,
Thun and both riders into the dark, damp and long-unused cellar of the
castle.
"A trap door," raged the Elegant Elephant, coming down like a carload
of bricks.
"A trap floor, you mean," gasped Randy, picking himself up with a
painful grimace, for the jolt had sent him flying off the elephant.
Thun had retained his balance, and neither he nor Planetty seemed to
mind the force of their landing. As they gazed angrily upward, the
floor of the throne room swung noiselessly back into place, leaving
the four prisoners to contemplate the heavy glass beams and panels of
its under side.
"So that was the downfall, and this is debasement," grunted Kabumpo,
sitting down furiously on an overturned wash-tub. "Great Grump, I've
never been so humiliated in my life. Don't cry, Planetty," he begged
gruffly, "we'll have you out of here in a pig's whistle."
"It's not that, Bumpo, dear." Planetty buried her face in Thun's cloudy
mane and sobbed bitterly. "It's my staff! It did not return after
I flung it at the red-wigged one, and without it I have nothing,
NOTHING!"
"Good Gollopers!" Randy clapped his hand to his forehead as he realized
the awful significance of Planetty's disclosure. "The floor tilted
too quickly for it to return, and OH, KABUMPO!" he wailed, almost
forgetting he was a King and Warrior. "If Gludwig has that staff, what
can we do? He can come down here and petrify us any time he wants."
"We'll hide!" gulped Kabumpo, bounding off the wash-tub. With furious
concentration his small eyes roved round and round their gloomy prison.
"But you're so big," declared Randy, running over to comfort Planetty.
"I'll hide anyway!" said Kabumpo, who had no intention of spending the
rest of his life as an iron elephant, nor of adorning the palace of
Gludwig the Glubrious as the mere image of himself.