Before he had left the Coal-Giant in the Pit in the centre of the
earth, the Giant had told him, if he ever needed an earthquake to help
him out, to call on him. All Marmaduke was to do was to tap on the
earth three times with his right foot, three times with his left, and
three times more, standing on his head. Then he was to run away. The
Giant had promised to allow five minutes so that Marmaduke and his
friends could get to safety.
So this Marmaduke did, just as he had been told. He tapped on the
ground three times with his right foot, three times with his left, and
three times more, standing on his head, and all under Choo Choo Choo's
very nose, for, of course, that was the very place where Marmaduke
wanted the earthquake to come.
Choo Choo Choo must have been fooled, for he stopped patting the snake
made of pennies, and sharpening his fingernails, and the soldiers
ceased whetting their swords. They thought Marmaduke was performing
circus tricks for their entertainment.
As soon as he was through standing on his head, he had run away, of
course, to get out of the way of the earthquake which he knew would
come. But the robbers thought he was just running back to his
dressing-room, as all acrobats do, and would come back again for his
bow. But he didn't. And after five minutes, just as the Coal Giant had
promised, there came a great roar and a mighty tremble, and Choo Choo
Choo and all his soldiers were blown up in the air, and when they came
down they fell on their heads and knocked their brains out. Then
Marmaduke came back--to find them all dead--stone dead.
And he thought it was very kind of the Coal Giant in the Pit in the
center of the Earth to help him out with that little favor.
But now all the million tea-Chinamen, who had seen the great
happening, fell down on their knees. They thought Marmaduke must have
come from Heaven, to work such wonders.
So they dressed him all up in a blue mandarin's coat, which they found
in the palanquin. It was covered with pretty snakes, all embroidered
in scarlet and gold. And they gave him a cap like a saucer turned
upside down and made of gold, and he looked all dressed up for a
party.
I guess the million Chinamen thought he did, too, and that they must
get up a party for him, for they led him to the great Pagoda which
stood on the top of the hill, and which, they told him, was the
highest anywhere in the world.
When they reached it, Marmaduke saw that it had many stories, which
grew smaller as they mounted nearer the sky. And each had roofs
curving like skis at the end. It was all pink-colored, too, with
stripes, and he saw that it was built of peppermint!
He was minded to eat it as Hansel and Gretel had eaten their sugar
house, but he didn't, because Ping Pong said it was sacred.
On a throne of stone, inside the Pagoda, sat an old jolly Billiken,
also of stone, and shaped just like an egg, with his hands across his
tummy and his legs crossed under him.
Now all the million Chinamen had followed Marmaduke, their slippers
going "clippity clop," on the pavement of the courtyard. They thought
he must be very wonderful to make the earthquake that killed Choo Choo
Choo, and they wanted him to sit on the great stone throne of the
Billiken. But Marmaduke wouldn't let them. He didn't want to take the
seat of the old Billiken when the old fellow had sat there for three
thousand years and more.
Billiken, however, had an idea about that. Probably he thought he had
been sitting there long enough, for he uncrossed his stone arms from
his stone tummy, unwriggled his stone feet, and stood up, stretching
and yawning.
"My! but that was a long sleep," he said, and Marmaduke nodded his
head. Three thousand years _was_ considerable of a sleep.
Then the Billiken stretched out his hand to shake Marmaduke's. The
little boy thought it felt very cold, but his new friend's face looked
jolly enough.
"Hello!" said the Billiken, "have a game?"
"A game of what Mr. Billiken?" Marmaduke replied.
"Oh, any old thing. What's the latest?"
Marmaduke thought for a moment.
"Well, there's Duck on the Rock," he suggested, "or Roly Poly."
"Duck on the Rock sounds interesting, let's try that."
Then he waved to the other little stone images all around him.
"Come on, fellows, let's play Duck on the Rock. But how do you play
it?" he added to Marmaduke, as they reached the courtyard.
"Oh!" replied that little boy, "it's easy. You just place a little
rock on a big one, and you each stand on the line with rocks in your
hand, an' take turns trying to knock the little one off the big one."
"Suits me," said Billiken, "here, _you_, stand on my head." And
he picked up one of the little stone images and set him upon his own
head, that was shaped so like an egg.
"Now shoot," he commanded Marmaduke, "let's see how it goes."
And Marmaduke did as he was bid, and he knocked off the little stone
image from the old Billiken's head.
They kept up the game for quite a while, but at last Marmaduke made a
wild shot. The rock which he threw went high up in the air and knocked
a pink gable off the Peppermint Pagoda.
At this, all the million Chinamen, who had been watching the game
respectfully from a distance, set up a howl. They thought it was a sin
to smash their pagoda, and that Marmaduke ought to be punished.
So, one and all, they made a rush for him, but again he remembered the
Coal Giant's advice. He tapped the ground three times with his right
foot, three times with his left, and three times, standing on his
head.
Then, after he had run to safety, there came as pretty an earthquake
as ever you saw. It didn't kill all the million little Chinamen, but
it threw them down on the ground, knocking the wind out of their
million tummies completely. And, of course, after that they were very
good, being afraid of Marmaduke, as well they might be.
Now, just at this time, the Queen happened by in a magnificent
palanquin of cloth of gold. When she saw the trick that Marmaduke had
performed, she, too, thought he must have come down from the sky, and
she sent her chief officer, the mandarin, to fetch the strange little
boy to the Palace.
He was glad to accept the invitation, for he was getting pretty hungry
by now. But they had to go through many beautiful grounds with strange
summer-houses, and high walls, and ponds with rainbow goldfish
swimming in them, before they reached the main part of the palace
itself. Then the Queen sat down on her throne, with her mandarins
around her, all dressed in those funny coats like pajama-tops and
embroidered with red dragons, and gold birds with great wings, and all
sorts of queer things.
The Queen seemed a little out of sorts, for, when he came to the
throne, she said to him sharply,--
"Show me a trick, or I'll cut your head off."
Marmaduke was puzzled. He didn't know just what to do. He didn't want
to start another earthquake. That was only to be used in times of
great danger. He'd better try something else first. So he felt in his
pockets once more, to see what he could find, and brought out the
little pack of cards with which he had played with the Coal Giant.
"I'll teach you how to play"--"Old Maid," he was going to say, but he
stopped in time. He thought that maybe the Queen had never been
married and she'd be insulted if he asked her to play Old Maid. Then,
too, she might insult him back by cutting his head off. And nobody
could stand an insult like that. So he just said,--
"_Casino_ is a fine game."
But "No," the Queen replied angrily, "I played that long before you
were born. And my honorable ancestors played it before me."
Again Marmaduke felt in his pockets, hoping to find something that
would help him out. He drew forth a penny, a fishhook, a dried worm,
two marbles, and--there--just the thing--the game of Authors, which
Aunt Phrony had given him for his birthday.
"I'll tell you what," he told the Queen, "let's play Authors. There's
nothing better than that."
"Authors, authors--" the Queen replied, tapping her foot impatiently,
"what are they?"
"Oh, people who write books and stories an' things. It's very nice."
So he explained to the Queen all about them, about Longfellow and
Whittier and all the rest. He really didn't know so very much about
them, you see, but he had played the game so often that he knew the
cards and names "'most by heart."
"Gracious!" exclaimed the Queen--in Chinese, of course. "Whittier and
Longfellow--what _pretty_ names! But haven't you got Confucius
there, somewhere?" Confucius, you see, was a man who wrote in Chinese
long years ago, and he was one of her pet authors.
Marmaduke shuffled the cards all over, but couldn't seem to find that
name.
"I guess he's been lost," he said politely, so as not to hurt her
feelings and lose his head, "but I'll tell you what"--he added,
pointing to a picture of Dickens--"we can call this man Confoundit
just as well."
"_Confucius, not Confoundit_," the Queen corrected him crossly,
then she looked at the card. "That'll do, I suppose. That author has a
kind face and a real long beard. It's not half bad."
She chose Marmaduke for her partner, and they played against the two
tallest mandarins in the red dragon coats.
The Queen and Marmaduke beat the old mandarins badly, due to
Marmaduke's fine playing. And the Queen was so pleased that she
exclaimed,--
"After all, I won't cut off your head. You see, it might stain that
pretty rug. I guess we'd better have tea and a party instead." Then
she added,--"By the way, do you drink tea?"
"Yes, thank you," he replied, "but make it '_cambric_.'"
"All right if you prefer it," she remarked, "but I call it silly to
spoil a good drink that way."
Then she clapped her hands, and her servants came running in, with
huge trays of wonderful foods in their arms. And the Queen and the
mandarins, Marmaduke and Wienerwurst, and Ping Pong, Sing Song, and Ah
See, all sat around the throne, drinking out of the little blue cups
and eating the strange food. It made Marmaduke's eyes almost pop out
of his head to see the way the Queen and her mandarins, and his three
little yellow friends, devoured those dishes,--the stewed rats, the
fricasseed shark's fins, and the old birds' nests. Now Wienerwurst
didn't seem to object to that sort of food at all, but "licked it
right up" like the Chinamen. Marmaduke chose other things
instead,--some pickled goldfish, candied humming-birds' tongues, some
frozen rose-petals, whipped cloud pudding, and a deep dish of spiced
air from the sky, with dried stars for raisins. And, to wash it all
down, he had a little blue cup of tea, "cambric" of course, quite as
his mother would have wished.
Seeing that he was growing drowsy from such a big meal, the Queen took
pity on him and said he could lean back against the golden throne and
take a nap.
But first she called the mandarin who was in charge of the
Fire-cracker Treasury, where they kept all the finest fire-crackers in
the world, and ordered him to bring Marmaduke some. Soon the mandarin
came back, and, with him, six servants, with trays heaped high with
the prettiest and the fanciest fire-crackers ever boy or man saw. They
were wrapped in rose-colored silk paper, with gold letters on the paper,
and dragons, too, with great eyes and fiery forked tongues.
[Illustration: "Then the Queen clapped her hands and the servants came
running in with trays piled high with wonderful foods."]
The six servants and the mandarin filled all Marmaduke's seven pockets
with the packs of fire-crackers, and tied one on Wienerwurst's tail.
Then they handed him some bundles of extra-fine punk sticks. It wasn't
at all like ordinary punk, but very sweet-smelling.
He lighted one stick, and it smelled so like incense, and he felt so
drowsy and nice, that he started to fall asleep. The lighted punk fell
lower and lower until it touched one of the fire-cracker-packs. The
silk paper began to curl and grow black, then it burst into flames.
There was a sputter, then a crackle like the firing of many rifles,
and then a great roar. My! but those were powerful fire-crackers. One
pack exploded--and he was blown through the palace. Another--and over
the Peppermint Pagoda he flew. Still another went off, and he was
tossed clean over the Great Wall to the mouth of the hole down which
he had come that very same day.
Then the last pack went--_bang_! and he was blown through the
hole, Wienerwurst after him, up, up, up, past the Coal Giant and the
Furnace Pit, and up, up, up, until he saw, just above him, the little
circle of light again.
Out of it he flew--and--all of a sudden his head cleared, and he saw
he was sitting back at home once more, sitting against the cedar post,
and the Toyman was rubbing his head.
"Never mind," the Toyman was saying, "It'll feel better soon. And how
did you like China?"
The head did feel better "pretty soon." Anyway, he didn't mind it a
bit. It was worth a headache, as the Toyman said, to have seen the
wonderful land of China.