Cap'n Bill suspected that these remarks were addressed to him, but he
couldn't move just then because the seat was across him, and a boy and
girl were sprawling on the seat. As the Magic Umbrella was now as
motionless as any ordinary umbrella might be, Button-Bright first
released the catch and closed it up, after which he unhooked the
crooked handle from the rope and rose to his feet. Trot had managed by
this time to stand up, and she pulled the board off from Cap'n Bill.
All this time the shrill, excited voice was loudly complaining because
the sailor was on his feet, and Trot looked to see who was making the
protest, while Cap'n Bill rolled over and got on his hands and knees so
he could pull his meat leg and his wooden leg into an upright position,
which wasn't a very easy thing to do.
Button-Bright and Trot were staring with all their might at the
queerest person they had ever seen. They decided it must be a man
because he had two long legs, a body as round as a ball, a neck like an
ostrich, and a comical little head set on the top of it. But the most
curious thing about him was his skin, which was of a lovely sky-blue
tint. His eyes were also sky-blue, and his hair, which was trained
straight up and ended in a curl at the top of his head, was likewise
blue in color and matched his skin and his eyes. He wore tight-fitting
clothes made of sky-blue silk, with a broad blue ruffle around his long
neck, and on his breast glittered a magnificent jewel in the form of a
star, set with splendid blue stones.
If the blue man astonished the travelers, they were no less surprised
by his surroundings, for look where they might, everything they beheld
was of the same blue color as the sky above. They seemed to have landed
in a large garden, surrounded by a high wall of blue stone. The trees
were all blue, the grass was blue, the flowers were blue, and even the
pebbles in the paths were blue. There were many handsomely carved
benches and seats of blue wood scattered about the garden, and near
them stood a fountain made of blue marble, which shot lovely sprays of
blue water into the blue air.
But the angry inhabitants of this blue place would not permit them to
look around them in peace, for as soon as Cap'n Bill rolled off his
toes, he began dancing around in an excited way and saying very
disrespectful things of his visitors. "You brutes! You apes! You
miserable, white-skinned creatures! How dare you come into my garden
and knock me on the head with that awful basket and then fall on my
toes and cause me pain and suffering? How dare you, I say? Don't you
know you will be punished for your impudence? Don't you know the
Boolooroo of the Blues will have revenge? I can have you patched for
this insult, and I will--just as sure as I'm the Royal Boolooroo of Sky
Island!"
"Oh, is this Sky Island, then?" asked Trot.
"Of course it's Sky Island. What else could it be? And I'm its Ruler,
its King, its sole Royal Potentate and Dictator. Behold in the
Personage you have injured the Mighty Quitey Righty Boolooroo of the
Blues!" Here he strutted around in a very pompous manner and wagged his
little head contemptuously at them.
"Glad to meet you, sir," said Cap'n Bill. "I allus had a likin' for
kings, bein' as they're summat unusual. Please 'scuse me for a-sittin'
on your royal toes, not knowin' as your toes were there."
"I won't excuse you!" roared the Boolooroo. "But I'll punish you. You
may depend upon that."
"Seems to me," said Trot, "you're actin' rather imperlite to strangers.
If anyone comes to our country to visit us, we always treat 'em decent."
"YOUR country!" exclaimed the Boolooroo, looking at them more carefully
and seeming interested in their appearance. "Where in the Sky did you
come from, then, and where is your country located?"
"We live on the Earth when we're at home," replied the girl.
"The Earth? Nonsense! I've heard of the Earth, my child, but it isn't
inhabited. No one can live there because it's just a round, cold,
barren ball of mud and water," declared the Blueskin.
"Oh, you're wrong about that," said Button-Bright.
"You surely are," added Cap'n Bill.
"Why, we live there ourselves," cried Trot.
"I don't believe it. I believe you are living in Sky Island, where you
have no right to be, with your horrid white skins. And you've intruded
into the private garden of the palace of the Greatly Stately Irately
Boolooroo, which is a criminal offense. And you've bumped my head with
your basket and smashed my toes with your boards and bodies, which is a
crime unparalleled in all the history of Sky Island! Aren't you sorry
for yourselves?"
"I'm sorry for you," replied Trot, "'cause you don't seem to know the
proper way to treat visitors. But we won't stay long. We'll go home
pretty soon."
"Not until you have been punished!" exclaimed the Boolooroo sternly.
"You are my prisoners."
"Beg parding, your Majesty," said Cap'n Bill, "but you're takin' a good
deal for granted. We've tried to be friendly and peaceable, an' we've
'poligized for hurtin' you, but if that don't satisfy you, you'll have
to make the most of it. You may be the Boolooroo of the Blues, but you
ain't even a tin whistle to us, an' you can't skeer us for half a
minute. I'm an ol' man, myself, but if you don't behave, I'll spank you
like I would a baby, an' it won't be any trouble at all to do it,
thank'e. As a matter o' fact, we've captured your whole bloomin' blue
island, but we don't like the place very much, and I guess we'll give
it back. It gives us the blues, don't it, Trot? So as soon as we eat a
bite of lunch from our basket, we'll sail away again."
"Sail away? How?" asked the Boolooroo.
"With the Magic Umbrel," said Cap'n Bill, pointing to the umbrella that
Button-Bright was holding underneath his arm.
"Oh, ho! I see, I see," said the Boolooroo, nodding his funny head. "Go
ahead, then, and eat your lunch."
He retreated a little way to a marble seat beside the fountain, but
watched the strangers carefully. Cap'n Bill, feeling sure he had won
the argument, whispered to the boy and girl that they must eat and get
away as soon as possible, as this might prove a dangerous country for
them to remain in. Trot longed to see more of the strange blue island,
and especially wanted to explore the magnificent blue palace that
adjoined the garden and which had six hundred tall towers and turrets;
but she felt that her old friend was wise in advising them to get away
quickly. So she opened the basket, and they all three sat in a row on a
stone bench and began to eat sandwiches and cake and pickles and cheese
and all the good things that were packed in the lunch basket.
They were hungry from the long ride, and while they ate they kept their
eyes busily employed in examining all the queer things around them. The
Boolooroo seemed quite the queerest of anything, and Trot noticed that
when he pulled the long curl that stuck up from the top of his head, a
bell tinkled somewhere in the palace. He next pulled at the bottom of
his right ear, and another faraway bell tinkled; then he touched the
end of his nose, and still another bell was faintly heard. The
Boolooroo said not a word while he was ringing the bells, and Trot
wondered if that was the way he amused himself. But now the frown died
away from his face and was replaced with a look of satisfaction.
"Have you nearly finished?" he inquired.
"No," said Trot, "we've got to eat our apples yet."
"Apples? Apples? What are apples?" he asked.
Trot took some from the basket. "Have one?" she said. "They're awful
good."
The Boolooroo advanced a step and took the apple, which he regarded
with much curiosity.
"Guess they don't grow anywhere but on the Earth," remarked Cap'n Bill.
"Are they good to eat?" asked the Boolooroo.
"Try it and see," answered Trot, biting into an apple herself.
The Blueskin sat down on the end of their bench, next to Button-Bright,
and began to eat his apple. He seemed to like it, for he finished it in
a hurry, and when it was gone he picked up the Magic Umbrella.
"Let that alone!" said Button-Bright, making a grab for it. But the
Boolooroo jerked it away in an instant, and standing up he held the
umbrella behind him and laughed aloud.
"Now then," said he, "you can't get away until I'm willing to let you
go. You are my prisoners."
"I guess not," returned Cap'n Bill, and reaching out one of his long
arms, the sailorman suddenly grasped the Boolooroo around his long,
thin neck and shook him until his whole body fluttered like a flag.
"Drop that umbrel. Drop it!" yelled Cap'n Bill, and the Boolooroo
quickly obeyed. The Magic Umbrella fell to the ground, and
Button-Bright promptly seized it. Then the sailor let go his hold and
the King staggered to a seat, choking and coughing to get his breath
back.
"I told you to let things alone," growled Cap'n Bill. "If you don't
behave, your Majesty, this Blue Island'll have to get another
Boolooroo."
"Why?" asked the Blueskin.
"Because I'll prob'ly spoil you for a king, an' mebbe for anything
else. Anyhow, you'll get badly damaged if you try to interfere with us,
an' that's a fact."
"Don't kill him, Cap'n Bill," said Trot cheerfully.
"Kill me? Why, he couldn't do that," observed the King, who was trying
to rearrange the ruffle around his neck. "Nothing can kill me."
"Why not?" asked Cap'n Bill.
"Because I haven't lived my six hundred years yet. Perhaps you don't
know that every Blueskin in Sky Island lives exactly six hundred years
from the time he is born."
"No, I didn't know that," admitted the sailor.
"It's a fact," said the King. "Nothing can kill us until we've lived to
the last day of our appointed lives. When the final minute is up, we
die; but we're obliged to live all of the six hundred years whether we
want to or not. So you needn't think of trying to kill anybody on Sky
Island. It can't be done."
"Never mind," said Cap'n Bill. "I'm no murderer, thank goodness, and I
wouldn't kill you if I could, much as you deserve it."
"But isn't six hundred years an awful long time to live?" questioned
Trot.
"It seems like it at first," replied the King, "but I notice that
whenever any of my subjects get near the end of their six hundred, they
grow nervous and say the life is altogether too short."
"How long have you lived?" asked Button-Bright.
The King coughed again and turned a bit bluer. "That is considered an
impertinent question in Sky Island," he answered, "but I will say that
every Boolooroo is elected to reign three hundred years, and I've
reigned not quite--ahem!--two hundred."
"Are your kings elected, then?" asked Cap'n Bill.
"Yes, of course. This is a Republic, you know. The people elect all
their officers from the King down. Every man and every woman is a
voter. The Boolooroo tells them whom to vote for, and if they don't
obey, they are severely punished. It's a fine system of government, and
the only thing I object to is electing the Boolooroo for only three
hundred years. It ought to be for life. My successor has already been
elected, but he can't reign for a hundred years to come."
"I think three hundred years is plenty long enough," said Trot. "It
gives someone else a chance to rule, an' I wouldn't be s'prised if the
next king is a better one. Seems to me you're not much of a Boolooroo."
"That," replied the King indignantly, "is a matter of opinion. I like
myself very much, but I can't expect you to like me, because you're
deformed and ignorant."
"I'm not!" cried Trot.
"Yes, you are. Your legs are too short and your neck is nothing at all.
Your color is most peculiar, but there isn't a shade of blue about any
of you, except the deep-blue color of the clothes the old ape that
choked me wears. Also, you are ignorant because you know nothing of Sky
Island, which is the Center of the Universe and the only place anyone
would care to live."
"Don't listen to him, Trot," said Button-Bright. "He's an ignorant
himself."
Cap'n Bill packed up the lunch basket. One end of the rope was still
tied to the handle of the basket, and the other end to his swing seat,
which lay on the ground before them.
"Well," said he, "let's go home. We've seen enough of this Blue Country
and its Blue Boolooroo, I guess, an' it's a long journey back again."
"All right," agreed Trot, jumping up.
Button-Bright stood on the bench and held up the Magic Umbrella, so he
could open it, and the sailor had just attached the ropes when a thin
blue line shot out from behind them and in a twinkling wound itself
around the umbrella. At the same instant another blue cord wound itself
around the boy's body, and others caught Trot and Cap'n Bill in their
coils, so that all had their arms pinned fast to their sides and found
themselves absolutely helpless.
THE SIX SNUBNOSED PRINCESSES