All the Blueskins except a few soldiers had gone to bed and were sound
asleep. A blue gloom hung over the city, which was scarcely relieved by
a few bluish, wavering lights here and there, but Trot knew the general
direction in which the palace lay, and she decided to go there first.
She believed the Boolooroo would surely keep so important a prisoner as
Cap'n Bill locked up in his own palace.
Once or twice the little girl lost her way, for the streets were very
puzzling to one not accustomed to them, but finally she sighted the
great palace and went up to the entrance. There she found a double
guard posted. They were sitting on a bench outside the doorway, and
both stood up as she approached.
"We thought we heard footsteps," said one.
"So did we," replied the other, "yet there is no one in sight."
Trot then saw that the guards were the two patched men, Jimfred
Jonesjinks and Fredjim Jinksjones, who had been talking together quite
cheerfully. It was the first time the girl had seen them together, and
she marveled at the queer patching that had been so strongly united
here, yet so thoroughly separated them.
"You see," remarked Jimfred as they seated themselves again upon the
bench, "The Boolooroo has ordered the patching to take place tomorrow
morning after breakfast. The old Earth man is to be patched to poor
Tiggle instead of Ghip-Ghisizzle, who has in some way managed to escape
from the Room of the Great Knife--no one knows how but Tiggle, and
Tiggle won't tell."
"We're sorry for anyone who has to be patched," replied Fredjim in a
reflective tone, "for although it didn't hurt us as much as we
expected, it's a terrible mix-up to be in until we become used to our
strange combination. You and we are about alike, now, Jimfred, although
we were so different before."
"Not so," said Jimfred. "We are really more intelligent than you are,
for the left side of our brain was always the keenest before we were
patched."
"That may be," admitted Fredjim, "but we are much the strongest,
because our right arm was by far the best before we were patched."
"We are not sure of that," responded Jimfred, "for we have a right arm,
too, and it is pretty strong."
"We will test it," suggested the other, "by all pulling upon one end of
this bench with our right arms. Whichever can pull the bench from the
others must be the strongest."
While they were tussling at the bench, dragging it first here and then
there in the trial of strength, Trot opened the door of the palace and
walked in. It was pretty dark in the hall, and only a few dim blue
lights showed at intervals down the long corridors. As the girl walked
through these passages, she could hear snores of various degrees coming
from behind some of the closed doors and knew that all the regular
inmates of the place were sound asleep. So she mounted to the upper
floor, and thinking she would be likely to find Cap'n Bill in the Room
of the Great Knife, she went there and tried the door. It was locked,
but the key had been left on the outside. She waited until the sentry
who was pacing the corridor had his back toward her, and then she
turned the key and slipped within, softly closing the door behind her.
It was pitch dark in the room, and Trot didn't know how to make a
light. After a moment's thought she began feeling her way to the
window, stumbling over objects as she went. Every time she made a
noise, someone groaned, and that made the child uneasy. At last she
found a window and managed to open the shutters and let the moonlight
in. It wasn't a very strong moonlight, but it enabled her to examine
the interior of the room. In the center stood the Great Knife, which
the Boolooroo used to split people in two when he patched them, and at
one side was a dark form huddled upon the floor and securely bound.
Trot hastened to this form and knelt beside it, but was disappointed to
find it was only Tiggle. The man stirred a little and rolled against
Trot's knee, when she at once became visible to him. "Oh, it's the
Earth child," said he. "Are you condemned to be patched, too, little
one?"
"No," answered Trot. "Tell me where Cap'n Bill is."
"I can't," said Tiggle. "The Boolooroo has hidden him until tomorrow
morning, when he's to be patched to me. Ghip-Ghisizzle was to have been
my mate, but Ghip escaped, being carried away by the Six Snubnosed
Princesses."
"Why?" she asked.
"One of them means to marry him," explained Tiggle.
"Oh, that's worse than being patched!" cried Trot.
"Much worse," said Tiggle with a groan.
But now an idea occurred to the girl. "Would you like to escape?" she
asked the captive. "If I get you out of the palace, can you hide
yourself so that you won't be found?"
"Certainly!" he declared. "I know a house where I can hide so snugly
that all the Boolooroo's soldiers cannot find me."
"All right," said Trot. "I'll do it, for when you're gone, the
Boolooroo will have no one to patch Cap'n Bill to."
"He may find someone else," suggested the prisoner.
"But it will take him time to do that, and time is all I want,"
answered the child. Even while she spoke, Trot was busy with the knots
in the cords, and presently she had unbound Tiggle, who soon got upon
his feet. "Now I'll go to one end of the passage and make a noise,"
said she, "and when the guard runs to see what it is, you must run the
other way. Outside the palace, Jimfred and Fredjim are on guard, but if
you tip over the bench they are seated on, you can easily escape them."
"I'll do that, all right," promised the delighted Tiggle. "You've made
a friend of me, little girl, and if ever I can help you, I'll do it
with pleasure."
Then Trot started for the door, and Tiggle could no longer see her
because she was not now touching him. The man was much surprised at her
disappearance, but listened carefully, and when he heard the girl make
a noise at one end of the corridor, he opened the door and ran in the
opposite direction as he had been told to do.
Of course, the guard could not discover what made the noise, and Trot
ran little risk, as she was careful not to let him touch her. When
Tiggle had escaped, the little girl wandered through the palace in
search of Cap'n Bill, but soon decided such a quest in the dark was
likely to fail and she must wait until morning. She was tired, too, and
thought she would find a vacant room--of which there were many in the
big palace--and go to sleep until daylight. She remembered there was a
comfortable vacant room just opposite the suite of the Six Snubnosed
Princesses, so she stole softly up to it and tried the door. It was
locked, but the key was outside, as the Blueskins seldom took a door
key from its place. So she turned the key, opened the door, and walked
in.
Now this was the chamber in which Ghip-Ghisizzle had been confined by
the Princesses, his arms being bound tight to his body, but his legs
left free. The Boolooroo in his search had failed to discover what had
become of Ghip Ghisizzle, but the poor man had been worried every
minute for fear his retreat would be discovered or that the terrible
Princesses would come for him and nag him until he went crazy. There
was one window in his room, and the prisoner had managed to push open
the sash with his knees. Looking out, he found that a few feet below
the window was the broad wall that ran all around the palace gardens. A
little way to the right the wall joined the wall of the City, being on
the same level with it.
Ghip-Ghisizzle had been thinking deeply upon this discovery, and he
decided that if anyone entered his room, he would get through the
window, leap down upon the wall, and try in this way to escape. It
would be a dangerous leap, for as his arms were bound, he might topple
off the wall into the garden; but he resolved to take this chance.
Therefore, when Trot rattled at the door of his room, Ghip-Ghisizzle
ran and seated himself upon the window sill, dangling his long legs
over the edge. When she finally opened the door, he slipped off and let
himself fall to the wall, where he doubled up in a heap. The next
minute, however, he had scrambled to his knees and was running swiftly
along the garden wall.
Trot, finding the window open, came and looked out, and she saw the
Majordomo's tall form hastening along the top of the wall. The guards
saw him, too, outlined against the sky in the moonlight, and they began
yelling at him to stop, but Ghip-Ghisizzle kept right on until he
reached the city Wall, when he began to follow that. More guards were
yelling now, running along the foot of the wall to keep the fugitive in
sight, and people began to pour out of the houses and join in the chase.
Poor Ghip realized that if he kept on the wall, he would merely circle
the city and finally be caught. If he leaped down into the City, he
would be seized at once. Just then he came opposite the camp of the
Pinkies and decided to trust himself to the mercies of his Earth
friends rather than be made a prisoner by his own people, who would
obey the commands of their detested but greatly feared Boolooroo. So
suddenly he gave a mighty leap and came down into the field outside the
city. Again he fell in a heap and rolled over and over, for it was a
high wall and the jump a dangerous one; but finally he recovered and
got upon his feet, delighted to find he had broken none of his bones.
Some of the Blueskins had by now opened a gate, and out rushed a crowd
to capture the fugitive; but Ghip-Ghisizzle made straight for the camp
of the Pinkies, and his pursuers did not dare follow him far in that
direction. They soon gave up the chase and returned to the City, while
the runaway Majordomo was captured by Captain Coralie and marched away
to the tent of Rosalie the Witch, a prisoner of the Pinkies.
THE GIRL AND THE BOOLOOROO