Kabumpo and Pompa Disappear
Once in his own apartment, Kabumpo pulled the bell rope furiously.
“My pearls and my purple plush robe! Bring them at once!” he puffed when
his personal attendant appeared in the doorway.
“Yes, Sir! Are you going out, Sir?” murmured the little Pumperdinkian,
hastening to a great chest in the corner of the big marble room, to get
out of the robe.
“Not unless disappearing is going out,” said Kabumpo more mildly, for he
was quite fond of this little man who waited on him. “But I’m liable to
disappear any minute. So are you. So is everybody, and I, for my part,
wish to do the thing well and disappear with as much elegance as
possible. Have you heard about the magic scroll, Spezzle?”
“Yes, Sir!” quavered Spezzle, mounting a ladder to adjust the Elegant
Elephant’s pearls and gorgeous robe of state. “Yes, Sir, and my head’s
going round and round like—”
“Like what?” asked Kabumpo, looking approvingly at his reflection in the
long mirror.
“I can’t rightly say, Sir,” sighed Spezzle. “This disappearing has me
that mixed up I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Well, don’t start by losing your head,” chuckled Kabumpo. “There—that
will do very well.” He lifted the little man down from the ladder.
“Good-bye, Spezzle. If you should disappear before I should see you
again, try to do it in style.”
“Yes, Sir!” gulped Spezzle. Then taking out a bright red handkerchief he
blew his nose violently and rushed out of the room.
Kabumpo walked up and down before the mirror, surveying himself from all
angles. A very gorgeous appearance he presented, in his purple plush
robe of state, all embroidered in silver, and his head bands of shining
pearls. In the left side of his robe there was a deep pocket. Into this
the Elegant Elephant slipped all the jewels he possessed, taking them
from a drawer in the chest.
“I must get that gold door knob,” he rumbled thoughtfully. “And the
mirror.” Noiselessly (for all his tremendous size, Kabumpo could move
without a sound) he made his way back to the banquet hall and loomed up
suddenly behind the Prime Pumper. The old fellow was staring with
popping eyes into the gold mirror.
“Ho, Ho!” roared Kabumpo. “Ho, Ho! Kerumph!”
No wonder! Above the shocked reflection of the foolish statesman stood
the words “Old Goose!”
“A truthful mirror, indeed,” wheezed the Elegant Elephant.
“Heh? What?” stuttered the Prime Pumper, slapping the mirror down on the
table in a hurry. “Where’d you come from? What are you all dressed up
for?”
“For my disappearance,” said Kabumpo, sweeping the door knob and mirror
into his pocket. “I’m getting ready to disappear. How do I look?”
Before the Prime Pumper had time to answer, the Elegant Elephant was
gone.
Back in his own room, Kabumpo paced impatiently up and down, waiting for
night. “I do not see how she could refuse us,” he mumbled every now and
then to himself.
[Illustration: (unlabelled)]
That was an anxious afternoon and evening in the palace of Pumperdink.
Every few minutes the Courtiers felt themselves nervously to see if they
were still there. The servants went about on tip-toe, looking fearfully
over their shoulders for the first signs of disappearance. As it grew
darker the gates and windows were securely barred and not a candle was
lighted. “The less the castle shows, the less likely it is to
disappear,” reasoned the King.
The darkness suited Kabumpo. He waited until everyone in the palace had
retired, and a full hour longer. Then he stepped softly down the passage
to the Prince’s apartment. Pompadore, without undressing had flung
himself upon a couch and fallen into an uneasy slumber.
Without making a sound, Kabumpo took the Prince’s crown from a dressing
cabinet, slipped it carefully into the pocket of his robe, and then
carefully lifted the sleeping Prince in his curling trunk and started
cautiously down the great hall. Setting him gently on the floor as he
reached the palace doors, he pushed back the golden bolts and stepped
out into the garden.
The voices of the watchmen calling to each other from the great wall
came faintly through the darkness, but the Elegant Elephant hurried to a
secret unguarded entrance known only to himself and Pompadore and passed
like a great shadow through the swinging gates. Once outside, he swung
the sleeping Prince to his broad back and ran swiftly and silently
through the night.
“What are we doing?” murmured the Prince drowsily in his sleep.
[Illustration: (unlabelled)]
“Disappearing,” chuckled Kabumpo under his breath. “Disappearing from
Pumperdink, my lad.”
[Illustration: (unlabelled)]