The Slave of the Magic Dinner Bell
How thankful Randy and Kabumpo were now for the Thunder Colt's fiery
breath. Otherwise they would have been in almost complete darkness,
as scarcely any light at all trickled down through the dark red glass
of the cellar windows. And there was small danger of his setting
Jinnicky's castle on fire, for the basement, like the rest of the
palace, was constructed of thick plates of solid glass. But here below,
the glass was not bright and sparkling as it was above stairs. Cobwebs
clung to the glass beams, dust powdered the floors, and round the walls
in boxes and barrels stood the old or worn out magic appliances of
the Red Jinn. There was no furnace in the cellar, for the castle was
warmed in winter by a magic process of Jinnicky's own invention; and
there were no doors, not even a closet or cupboard where any of them
could hide. With Thun stepping ahead to act as a torch, the others
marched anxiously round the great gloomy vault-like apartment.
"No place to hide, no provisions, nothing to eat or drink. NOTHING!"
exclaimed the Elegant Elephant, sinking down on the wash-tub. "That is,
nothing to do but wait for destruction," he concluded bitterly.
"Well, we're not destroyed yet!" declared Randy, sticking out his
chin. "Everything seems quiet above. Maybe Gludwig is not going to use
Planetty's staff till morning."
With a discouraged sniff Kabumpo began poking in the boxes behind him.
Finding one full of excelsior, he started to stuff the choking material
into his mouth with his trunk. Randy was sure the excelsior would
disagree with him, but when Kabumpo was in such a mood, it was quite
useless to argue with him; so, beckoning for Thun to light the way, he
and Planetty set out on a second tour of investigation.
Randy paused dubiously before a collection of squat bottles and jugs.
He was convinced they contained liquids or vapors powerful enough
to help them, but the directions on the labels were all in some
strange magician's code and Randy hesitated to open even one of the
magic bottles. Experience had taught him that a wizard's wares were
dangerous, and he himself had seen the Red Jinn subdue whole armies
by releasing incense from a blue jug. So, selecting two pocket-size
jars, to use only in case everything else failed, Randy moved on to
the other side of the cellar. Here on top of a chest he discovered a
small red hand-bag. Instead of the usual fastenings, two real hands
formed the clasp, and when Randy opened the bag it quickly jerked out
of his grasp and began springing all over the cellar on its hands,
pouncing gleefully on papers and bottles and stuffing them into its
side pockets. It did look so comical, Planetty burst into a peal of
merriment. Even Randy could not keep back a grin. It was a relief to
see the little Princess more like herself again, for since the loss of
her voral staff she had been unnaturally quiet and sad.
"Wait, I'll catch it for you," offered Randy, dismissing for a moment
all thought of the dreadful danger they were in. "It must be one of
Jinnicky's inventions. Look, Kabumpo, a bag that really packs itself."
"Watch out it doesn't pinch you!" warned Kabumpo morosely. He
had already begun to regret the excelsior and was rumbling with
indigestion. "I was never one to hold with hand luggage, myself."
"Oh, yes you were!" crowed Randy, falling on the bag as if it had been
a football and coming up triumphantly with it clutched to his middle.
"You use your trunk for a hand, Kabumpo, and doesn't that make it hand
luggage? Hey, hey, hurray! Never thought I'd make a joke in this dismal
place!"
"It's a pretty dismal joke, if you ask me." The Elegant Elephant heaved
himself stiffly off the wash-tub. "Keep it away from me!" he warned
crossly, as Randy, paying no attention to the thumps of the hand-bag,
managed to get it shut again. As soon as it was closed the bag
subsided and seemed absolutely unalive. "Here!" puffed Randy, holding
it out to Planetty. "This bag will pack itself, madam, and you can use
it every time you go on a journey."
"Can I? How nite!" Planetty beamed at her young companion.
"Well, who's going on a journey?" inquired Kabumpo sarcastically,
walking up and down to relieve his indigestion. "We'll probably spend
the rest of our unnatural lives in this abominable basement. Say
something, can't you?" he shouted, glaring at poor Thun. "I can hardly
see where I'm going." As fast as Planetty translated this rude speech,
the Thunder Colt sent up his answer.
"If I said all the words I am thinking," puffed Thun temperishly,
"this room would be very red bright, Mister Kabumpty, very red bright
indeed." The Thunder Colt's speech and his further remarks made Randy
and Planetty laugh again.
"Let's see what else we can find," proposed the young King. In spite of
Kabumpo's gloomy predictions, he was feeling more hopeful. "Maybe this
time we'll turn up something we can really use."
"Oh, maybe yes, maybe yes!" trilled Planetty, slipping swiftly as
quicksilver after Randy. Passing by some dusty apparatus and an old
spinning wheel, they discovered a huge red drum behind a pile of old
trunks. The sticks were stuck through a cord in the side and it was so
heavy that the two between them could hardly carry it. But giggling and
puffing they dragged it into the center of the cellar and dropped it
down before Kabumpo.
"See what we have now!" Dusting off his clothes, Randy surveyed it
proudly.
"Humph! A DRUM!" The Elegant Elephant moved his ears forward and then
back. "Well, what grumpy use is a drum? Am I in a parade? Do you expect
me to beat it?"
"Beat the drum?" Planetty looked surprised and shocked. "Is that for
what a drum is for, Bumpo, dear?"
"Well, yes, in a way." A bit ashamed of himself, Kabumpo drew out one
of the sticks. "It goes like this," he said, raising the drumstick high
in his trunk.
"Oh no! Kabumpo, NO! Don't do that or you'll have Gludwig down here! It
would make too much noise."
"What if it does?" Kabumpo shrugged his great shoulders. "We may as
well perish now as tomorrow. I'm perishing of hunger anyway."
Before Randy could interfere, he brought the drumstick down with a
thump that split the taut surface of the drum from edge to edge.
The loud rip and BONG made the rafters ring, and scarcely had they
recovered from that shock before a small black boy in an enormous
turban sprang out of the drum itself and began sobbing and spluttering
and hugging Kabumpo as if he never would let him go.
"Good Gillikens! It's Ginger!" panted Randy, as Planetty caught him
anxiously by the sleeve. "It's the slave of the magic dinner bell. He
can bring us dinners and whatever one wants when Jinnicky rings for
him. Hi--who shut you up in that drum, boy?"
"That big old Red Wig," sniffed Ginger, drying his tears on Kabumpo's
robe. "Oh, how can I ever thank you, Mister Elephant so Elegant!
I remember you! I remember him!" The bell boy jerked his thumb
delightedly at Randy. "And many times I thank you--fifty times eleven,
I thank you. You see, if I am shut up in a drum, it is impossible for
me to answer the Master's ring if he needs me. And he needs me now, I
know it, I know it!"
"But how can he call you unless he has the dinner bell?" asked Randy,
edging closer. "Did Jinnicky take the bell with him when--when--" To
save himself, Randy could not finish the dismal sentence.
"When Gludwig pushed him into the sea, you mean?" Ginger's brown face
puckered up again, but, controlling his sobs with a great effort, he
sat down on the edge of the drum and told them the whole story of
Jinnicky's mischance and misfortunes.
"The Master, as you know," explained Ginger, his eyes rolling sideways
as he caught sight of Planetty and Thun, whose like he had never seen
in his entire magic existence, "the Master is always kind and jolly and
unsuspecting. This Gludwig was the manager of our ruby mines and one of
Jinnicky's most trusted officers. But all the time, this viper, this
snake, this villainous black snake--" Ginger clenched his fists and
kicked his heels angrily against the drum--"was planning to steal our
Red Jinn's throne and magic, in addition to his own splendid mansion
and fortune. One evening, seven moons ago, having trained his miners
into an army of rebellion, Gludwig marched upon our castle and drove
everybody out."
"Everybody?" The Elegant Elephant, picking Ginger up in his trunk,
looked earnestly into his face.
"Every EV body!" repeated the little bell boy, wagging his turban
sorrowfully. "Alibabble, the Grand Advizier, all the members of the
court and household were sent to the mines under the cruel rule of
Glubdo, Gludwig's brother, and they are there now, working without
rest, hope or reward. He marched the Master to the head of the highest
cliff and pushed him violently into the sea with his OWN hands!"
Ginger began to tremble with grief and anger at the memory of it all.
"He ordered the bandsmen to seal me up in this drum, knowing a drum is
the only place from which I cannot escape, and hoping I would shrivel
up and perish. But I--" asserted the little black triumphantly--"I am
the best part of Jinnicky's magic, so he couldn't destroy me." A quick
grin overspread Ginger's face. "And he could not destroy my Master
either. Of that I am sure, and now that the elephant so elegant has let
me out--NOW--"
"Now what?" breathed Randy, almost afraid Ginger was not going to
tell him. "You see, Ginger, we came to visit the Red Jinn and were
immediately captured and dumped down here ourselves. So how can we get
out? And what can we do?"
"I will think of something," promised the bell boy. Wriggling out of
Kabumpo's trunk, he scurried across the cellar and disappeared beneath
an overturned wheelbarrow.
"So! He will think of something," sniffed Kabumpo, trying not to make
it sound too sarcastic. "Well, of course, that settles it. And while he
is thinking, I intend to take a nap. I'm completely worn out with all
these vile plots and villainies."
"I too will ret," decided Planetty, reaching over to pat the Thunder
Colt. The strange excitements of the day had wearied the little
Princess, and this last story of Ginger's had still further puzzled and
distressed her.
"I never thought when I brought you here you'd have to sleep in a place
like this," groaned Randy, glancing ruefully round the dingy basement.
"Oh, it's not so bad," smiled the little Princess. Slipping off her
cape, she swung it casually between two grimy pillars, and with the
hand-bag tucked under her arm, climbed contentedly into her silver bed.
"Good net, Randy and Bumpo, dear!" she called softly. "I believe I
shall ret for a long, long time."
"Now what does she mean by that?" worried the young King, as the
Princess blew them each a wistful kiss. "Something's wrong, Kabumpo, I
feel it! And look there at Thun! Why is he acting so strangely? Almost
as if he could not see."
"Look at him! Look at him!" wailed the Elegant Elephant. "Where is he?
How can I? It's dark as thunder in here now! Great Grump, Randy, I
can't see you, him or anything at all."
Stumbling and tripping, he somehow crossed the cellar to the spot where
he remembered Thun had been. Then, as his trunk struck against hard
cold metal, he recoiled in horror.
"He's OUT!" moaned the Elegant Elephant hoarsely. "He's not even
breathing. Why, he's cold and stiff as a stone. Oh, Good Grump, the
colt saved my life and now what can I do for him? What'll we do,
Randy? I say, what'll we DO?"
Randy had no answer at all, for, moved by a dreadful foreboding, he
leaned down to touch the face of the little Princess of Anuther Planet,
only to find it still and cold. No sparkling light radiated from
Planetty now as, quiet and motionless as a statue, she lay wrapped in
her silver nets.
"Ginger, where are you? Ginger, come help us!" Randy screamed
desperately. Scrambling out from under the barrow, the startled bell
boy reached Randy's side in a split second, for Ginger could see as
well in the dark as in the daytime.
"Did--Gludwig--do--this?" he panted, his eyes rolling wildly from
Planetty to the frozen Thunder Colt.
"No, no, they are far from their own country and need the powerful
Vanadium springs," groaned Kabumpo, putting out his trunk to touch the
little Princess. "They cannot exist down here. And with Jinnicky gone,
who's to help them?" His tears fell thick and fast on Planetty's silver
tresses.
"Then why do we stay here?" shuddered Ginger, tugging at Randy's cloak
and Kabumpo's robe. "Why do we stay?"
As if to answer Ginger's mournful cry, there was a long whistling
rustle in the air, and next moment Randy, Ginger, Kabumpo and the
Princess of Anuther Planet were wafted like feathers through the night,
passing easily as mist through the narrow glass windows, up over the
castle itself and out over the silvery moonlit sea.